Heartstrings
by melinagarcia
Summary: Once someone has broken your heartstrings, it's tough to put them back together and have someone pull at them again... but it's not impossible.
1. Chapter 1

Winter break was supposed to be the best time of my life.

I was supposed to go skiing in Aspen, I was supposed to go visit my friend in San Francisco, AND I was supposed to lay on the beach in LA.

But instead of doing that, I broke up with my boyfriend of almost two years.

All these plans were with him. We were going to go to Aspen to go skiing with some friends and then go to San Francisco to visit one of my best friends and before all of that, we were going to go to LA to visit my family and lay on the beach and enjoy that California winter... pure sunshine. And it was supposed to be perfect and the best winter break of my entire life. My last winter break ever, pretty much. My last winter break before I graduated in June.

Change of plans, though. Because my boyfriend decided to start cheating on me with some girl he met two months prior at some party.

A party I didn't even know he went to!

So you know what I did? I spent four whole weeks at home, doing absolutely NOTHING.

And what did he do?

Let's see. He went off to Aspen with said friends, his friends. And from there, he went to Washington to visit some friends and he just had the best time. According to his stupid Instagram account where he documents his fucking life for the whole world to see. And having to see him having fun with his friends while I'm stuck at home, trying to figure out what went wrong, is the FUCKING WORST. The absolute worst thing, ever. And it almost makes me wish I hadn't met Chris altogether. That I hadn't taken that stupid sociology class at that time. That I hadn't given him my number when he asked. Or anything. I just wish that none of it happened because then I wouldn't be feeling this way...

Disposable. I feel disposable.

"You know there are a million fish in the sea, right?" Emily tells me as she takes a seat next to me on the couch.

"I don't want to fucking hear that," I snap at her even though she's just trying to be a good best friend, "Em, it was getting to the point where we were planning our future. How am I supposed to just ignore that? How am I supposed to pretend that I'm okay? That is doesn't bother me?"

She shrugged, looking helpless, "you just are. Because it's over. You're not getting back with him."

I stayed quiet. I told myself I wasn't. That I knew I shouldn't. But it's easier said than done. There's so much history. There's so much there that as fucked up as it is, maybe I would take him back... after some time.

"Gabriella Montez, you are NOT getting back with him," she instructs me, "no way. No. How could you after what he did to you?"

"I know, it's stupid to even think that, but the feelings were so real, Em. So real and so many people forgive cheating. Why can't I be one of them?"

She rolls her eyes and turns slightly towards me, "people who are married and have kids forgive cheating because they stood before God and made vows. People who have been together for ten years and have so many things between them forgive cheating because they truly love each other and have built a life for themselves. People who have cheated ONCE, it was a stupid drunken mistake, forgive cheating. People who find out their boyfriend has been talking to some girl for a WHOLE month shouldn't forgive cheating. He knew what the fuck he was doing. He knew. There's no way around that. And just look at the way he's acting. Like he doesn't care. Like he doesn't even remember he was just in a two year relationship. That's got to count for something, Gabs."

She's right. She's absolutely right. I know that. But still. Maybe I'm just going crazy right now. I just need some time.

"So if Tyler were to cheat on you, you'd cut if off? Even though you've been together almost as long?"

"Absolutely," she says with no hesitation, "I know that sounds like a bunch of bullshit considering how much I love him and everything, but honestly, you can't be with someone who doesn't think about you. You guys were dating. You're not bound to each other. It's going to get easier, I promise."

"I wish it was sooner rather than later," I sigh, sinking into the couch.

Emily frowns, "please just promise me you won't talk to him, you won't text or call him. If he tries to say he's sorry, you accept it and that's it? Please?"

It's just the pain talking, I know it is. Because I've always told myself that unless I'm married, to never forgive cheating. To never allow myself to let people think they can use me and be okay with it. I've always been strong and I so desperately want to be at this time.

I just know it's going to take time.

But I make her that promise because I really want it to happen. "Yes. I won't talk to him."

"I'm seriously only trying to look out for you, G, you know that. I love you."

"I love you, too," I tell her, sincerely. She's my best friend in the whole world, since the 5th grade. Of course she cares. "Thank you."

Emily turns on the TV, changes the channel to Bravo so she could watch the real housewives of whatever city and I just sit here and think about everything. About how a month ago, I had no idea what was about to happen to me. About how I was happily with my boyfriend. We HAD just hit the two year mark, like a week before. Can you believe that? A WEEK BEFORE I FOUND EVERYTHING OUT. It was the worst. But I felt happy with him. And I was happy about school ending and starting my life and hoping to start it with him. Back in LA. Out of San Diego. The two of us, with our cute little apartment and a new dog.

But that dream's over now and I have to accept it because he doesn't respect me and he doesn't care about me.

I'm moving on from Chris Matthews if it's the last thing I do.


	2. Chapter 2

The first day of the semester is always the best.

The professor goes over the syllabus, they explain how class will work and then you're off.

But it's my last semester. The professors I have know they are teaching students who are almost graduating so they're wasting no time. They're getting right to it and it's a little bit overwhelming to be honest. I didn't expect to have a full page of notes today. Or even this week, to be honest.

So when I get to my last class of the day, Art History, I'm relieved.

It's a GE class that I've been putting off because I hate anything history. And Art? Well, the two just scream that it's the worst class I can possibly take.

But I HAVE to take it so here I am...

My professor has the syllabus pulled up on the projector and it's nice that it seems like she's going to be talking about that. About how we're going to be grade. About tests. And what books we need. And it doesn't look like she's going to dive in and start teaching. Thank God.

"Are you saving that seat for someone?" I hear someone ask me as I'm daydreaming about what I'll be having for lunch after this.

"What?" I heard him, though. I don't know why I said that. "Oh, um, no go ahead."

He waited until I took my bag off of it and then slid in and took a seat, pulling the little desk out from the side of the chair so he could put his notebook down. And then he turned to me and gave me a smile. "Thanks."

Holy fuck. This guy was HOT. Like unbelievably attractive. Beautiful, I think is the best word to describe him.

He had short hair, but it was long enough to run your hands through, and it kind of looked messy like he had just gotten out of bed. So hot. His bright blue eyes stood out, obviously, the most. And has these dark, thick eyebrows that really brought his eyes out. He was tan. And I just can't get over how hot this guy is. Oh my gosh, he is so beautiful that I think I'm going to have to use my hands to physically turn my head away from him before it gets creepy.

"Did she say 20 or 30?" he leans in and asks me.

"I don't know," I quickly say before looking down at my notebook, "sorry."

He laughed and shrugged, "no worries. I think she said 20. She's talking about quizzes, after all."

True. I don't think a quiz would be 30% of your grade. So there's that. I kind of just smiled at him and then looked back down at my notebook and glued my eyes to that thing for the next five minutes so I wouldn't be tempted to look at him. Or stare at him would be the better word.

And it works until he drops his fucking pencil RIGHT BY ME.

I pick it up and then hand it to him with a smile And of course, it's like a fucking movie because his hand touches mine as he grabs it.

"Sorry," he says before putting it down on top of his notebook, "thanks. I'm usually not this annoying."

"What?" I'm intrigued now because I didn't think he was being annoying at all so why the hell is he even talking about. "How are you annoying?"

He shrugs before picking up his pencil and scribbling something down, which I do the same. "I don't know. Coming in here late, having to walk past you, asking you what the professor said, dropping my pencil so you have to reach down and grab it."

Oh. HA. Those are hardly annoying. He's whispering so it makes him even hotter for some reason. I don't even know what I'm talking about, to be honest.

"No, it's fine," I give him a smile, "you're not being annoying at all."

"Okay," he says with the same kind of smile I gave him. "Good. I'm Troy, by the way."

Troy? I'm not even sure I like that name, but it... it suits him. Quite perfectly. It's such a strong name. "Gabriella."

Again, he just smiles at me and then looks ahead to the professor who's babbling on about the class. So I should probably be paying attention, too.

But for a moment, I just think about how this is the same way I met Chris. Two years ago. In Sociology. He introduced himself to me and the rest was history... couple months of friendship, just talking in class and grabbing lunch sometimes which turned into two years together.

And it's bumming me out. It makes me want to run out of here and just go home and maybe cry.

Obviously, I don't. I have to be strong. I have to be okay with it. But it's hard when I'm having serious deja vu and all these things keep remind me of him. The way he introduced himself to me so casually that first day. How he told me he liked my name. How we'd walk around campus together, holding hands, laughing and saying hi to people together. Everything. Just everything.

And it sucks. It fucking sucks that we're not together anymore and I'm left with this big hole in my heart because of him.

But I keep it together and continue to listen to my professor and think about what Emily said and what everyone else has been telling me the last few weeks.

And before I know it, class is over and I'm free to go to the gym to relieve stress and anger.

I NEED to go run off some steam or something.

But I'm stopped by someone on the way out. Well, outside my classroom. "Well, well, well, if it isn't my best friend..."

"Cooper!" I'm suddenly feeling a little better. And also thanking God it's HIM I'm running into to and I wasn't stopped by someone in class, or someone trying to tell me something else. "Oh my gosh, I'm the worst person alive, huh?! I'm sorry I haven't really talked to you. How are you?"

"I'm good," he laughs, embracing me in a hug now, "how are YOU?"

"I'm okay."

He's about to open his mouth to say something, but something behind me catches his eye. He's smiling and completely ignoring me now. He moves past me and embraces someone in a bro hug. Or a bro handshake. I'm not really sure what it's called to be honest.

It was the guy I just sat next to. Troy. The beautiful one.

"Dude! How was Europe?" Cooper exclaims, "I've seen some pics, but holy, it must have been better than it looks."

"Yeah, it was great," Troy laughs, holding onto his notebook, it's the only thing he's carrying, "better than the pictures for sure, man. Let's grab a drink tonight if you're not busy. I was gonna go over to Porters with Brent and them if you wanna join."

"Okay yeah, I don't think I'm busy," he says, nodding, "and don't have a class til two so yeah, for sure. Have you talked to Callie?"

Okay, it looks like Cooper wants to engage in a conversation with him and I really don't have time to wait for them to stop talking in order to talk to him, so I'm just gonna go. I still want to go to the gym and let everything out.

So I walk over to them a bit, Troy looks surprised to see me, like maybe I'm about to tell him something, and I lightly grab Coopers waist from behind.

He turns around and looks mortified, like he completely forgot about me. "Gabs, sorry, sorry..."

"No, it's okay. I have to get going, though, but um, I'll call you later," I tell him and then look up at Troy who still looks slightly confused.

"Wait, but I wanna talk to you, I haven't seen you in like three weeks," he says, looking back and forth from Troy and I, "just give me two minutes and I'll walk you to wherever you're going, okay?"

I mean, I guess. I do want to catch up with him. Cooper's one of my oldest, best friend. "Okay, yeah, sure."

He tells me great and then turns around and talks to Troy and I kind of just stand off to the side. So I take the time to grab my phone out of my purse and check my texts or any social media accounts. And much to my surprise, I have a text from none other than Christopher Matthews.

 _I know we're not speaking, but I hope your first day back goes well._

And that was more than enough for my eyes to well up and a single tear to fall.

Fuck. I quickly wiped it away, deleted the text so I'm not tempted to text back and shove my phone right back in my purse, not wanting to deal with it.

How dare he text me that? He has no right to tell me he hopes my day goes well when he's the reason my days haven't been going well. I've been laying in bed eating ice cream, trying to figure out why the fuck I wasn't enough for him all while he's been gallivanting around, having the time of his life.

Fuck him. Fuck this situation. And fuck everything.

Finally, when I was about to tell Cooper that I was just going to go, he said goodbye to Troy and turned around so we can go.

"I'll see you later," Troy tells me with a smile as he walks by me.

"You know him?" Cooper asks.

I shrug, "no. We just had class together now, though. Coincidentally, he sat by me."

Cooper nodded as he and I made our way to the parking structure across campus. "Oh, really? Small world. Troy actually used to date Julia's roommate so we became friends. But anyway, so you're okay?"

"Julia's roommate? Callie? Isn't that awkward?" I imagine it would be. "Like, you're still friends with him even though Julia and Callie are still friends?"

"Yeah," he shrugs, looking like it's not big deal, "Julia and Callie are like roommate friends. Their mutual friend is Sydney. And besides, who cares. I don't have any loyalty to Callie. Without Julia, Callie and I would barely be friends. Troy's cool as hell so why not?"

Okay, well, I was just wondering. "Things are good with Julia?"

He nods, smiling, "things are great. It just sucks we're getting closer to graduation. I think she might stay out here if she could get that internship. And well, you know me, I wanna go home to LA and get started with my uncle. So we're trying to figure that out."

"But you don't want to get your hopes up because what if she cheats on you and everything is thrown out the window? That'll suck."

"Gabs," he says with a disappointed tone.

"Sorry, you're right. It doesn't even make sense. If she were to cheat on you, nothing would change. She'd be here, you'd go home, that'll be that."

Cooper takes the lead and squeezes through some people on this bridge ramp and once we're clear to talk again, side by side, he sighs. "I know you don't mean it, but still, don't let what happen affect you that much. I know it's inconsiderate to say but honestly, not all guys are the same, and there's a guy out there that would never in a million years hurt you. Look forward to meeting that guy and just let everything go."

He's trying to help, I get it. We've been friends for over a decade. Ever since he moved in next door and we'd play soccer with each other and with my brother and his little sister and our parents would hang out and BBQ. So, I appreciate him.

But it's hard telling a woman who has just had her heart broken to move on, to let everything go and that there's someone better out there.

I don't want to think about another guy. My guard is up. Way up.

"Sometimes I feel like you followed me to college just so you can look out for me," I lighten up a bit.

"Well, who else would've?" he asks, "sure, you have Emily, but you need a guy. You need someone who's going to tell you what it's like on the other side and who's strong enough to beat up a guy for you, which I would have done if he hadn't left on a million vacations. Something I think he definitely planned."

I laughed. Cooper could seriously always make me feel better, no matter what.

There's nothing there between us and there never will be. He's one of my oldest friends and we're practically brother and sister.

So when we both found out we got into UC San Diego, we decided to go together. Along with Emily. The three of us road tripped it out here and it's been the best time of our lives. I met Chris, he met Julia, Emily met her boyfriend and so we'd all hang out. But obviously we all had our own thing going on. It was nice, though, having them here with me. Having them to relate what I'm going through.

But now, here I am single. And they're still very much with their significant others so I'm the odd one out.

I saw Cooper a few times over Winter Break since we do live right next door to each other in LA, but then he went on vacation with Julie and I didn't see him.

So running into him here, like this, was cool. Because I know if he would have tried to come over later, I would have been too busy laying on the couch, thinking about shit and not give him the time of day. I'd be too annoyed or something, I'm not really sure. I just know it's better this way.

"I know I'll be fine, just right now, everything sucks."

"Totally normal. But I mean, do you ever think about Jack?" He brings up my ex boyfriend that I had in high school.

"It's different, Coop," I try to reason for him because my answer would indeed prove his point. I don't think about Jack. I mean, I do, but not in a piney way. I'm not pining over him. Or thinking about what could have been, you know? "But no."

Cooper shook his head, "you were in love with Jack. How's it different? The circumstances, sure. You and Jack wanted different things, but still the same."

Kind of, I guess. Kind of not. "I'm older now. This was a more mature love. This was something I was thinking about in my future."

"I know," he says as if it doesn't even matter anymore than he was trying to prove a point. He just wants to be there for me and help me out. "But sooner or later, things will be okay, you know. There's someone better out there."

"Maybe," I smile, trying to get off the subject now, "I'll be fine. I'm just in the pissed off, depressed stage or whatever. But I will be fine."

"Good because we don't want you going back to him."

We? Who's we? Is he including himself in my family? Ha. Because everyone's told me the same thing. That I better not get back with him, blah blah blah. It's something I know, but still, it's hard. "Who's we? My mom, dad and my brother?"

He nodded, "and Julia. Sorry we're talking about it, but we just don't want you going backwards, you know?"

"I know, I get it. And I'm appreciative."

"Before you know it, you'll be dating some other guy and you'll be fine."

Dating. That's what I'm afraid of. I'm going to have to do it eventually if I ever want to move on.

But the thought of it terrifies me.

So for now, I'm sticking to being by myself...


	3. Chapter 3

It's been over a month. One whole month without Chris.

So I have to get over this. I have to do something about it... which means I have to get rid of all of his things.

I opened my closet and right away, I saw two things that belong to him. Hoodies. Two hoodies that I love more than anything, but I know I have to give them back. I know it's not good having them here. So I grab them, toss them behind me and walk in deeper to see what else I have of his in here.

Yesterday after I got done talking to Cooper and going to the gym to blow off steam, I called my grandma because well, I love talking to her when I'm down.

She always know exactly what to say to cheer me up and yesterday was no different.

So per her request, she told me to get rid of anything that belonged to Chris. Things that I'll physically see that will remind me of him. Not pictures of anything because I may regret it, but clothes, little things that he's ever given me in our relationship.

My grandma and grandpa have been married for 40 years so I trust whatever comes out of her mouth. I trust her take on love.

She also told me that if I wanted to get back with Chris, I should... but after a few years or even months have passed by. After wounds have been closed. After he learned what he did and is truly sorry for it. After we've had time apart. And I thought that was crazy. Aren't people not supposed to get back with cheaters altogether? But she talked me through it and told me getting back with him in a few weeks would be downright stupid. It means you chose to allow him to do something hurtful and dumb and not have to pay any consequences. And she'd be right. So I can't. I can't be with Chris. Not that he's planning on getting back with me, but you know, if he ever tries... I can't. I shouldn't. And I don't think I want to anymore after that talk with my grandma.

Because if Chris and I are meant to be, we'll find a way. Whether it be next year, five years or ten. It'll happen if we are truly meant to be with each other.

"What are you doing?" Emily asks me as she comes into my room.

"Cleaning," I yell from inside my closet before she comes over. I'm not sure if you can actually call it cleaning, though. "I'm getting rid of everything that belonged to Chris. Grandma told me to, so who am I to say no? Do you think you can deliver it all to him?"

Emily looks down at the pile I've created. Three hoodies, two long sleeve shirts, four shirts, two pair of his shorts and a blanket that belongs to him.

Chris stayed over countless nights. So yeah, I've accumulated his clothes over the months.

Emily leaned down where all my shoes were and grabbed a pair of his. Black vans. Yep. He even left shoes here. Ugh. "I don't really care to see him, to be honest, maybe Tyler can deliver everything to him."

"Perfect. I don't care who does it. I just don't think I should be seeing him because who knows what will happen."

"What, you think he can talk you into getting back with him?"

I shrug as I sit on the floor of my closet and look up at her, "he did cheat on me and he didn't fight the breakup so yeah, I'm not necessarily saying he will want me back, but he did text me yesterday and told me to he hopes I have a good first day or whatever."

Emily's eyed widened a bit, "seriously? He actually texted you that? Wow."

"Why wow?"

"Gabs, I loved Chris when you guys were together, but you and I both know he would never put himself out there like that. He's too prideful. I'm not saying he's not nice enough to send you a text like that, I just think you and I both know there's something more to it than him just trying to be nice, you know?"

She's right. I know she is. And that's what's annoying. "I can't get back with him."

Emily smiles at me and then sits on the ground with me. "Good. You shouldn't. Just focus on yourself, on school, on life. It'll all be fine, I know it will."

"I feel like I'm done pining. I just need to get rid of this and maybe I'll feel better. Like, the next stage. Anger."

"You need to go out and have some fun. You were cooped up all winter break pretty much and now you're back in school and you need to focus on that and have fun. Let's go out Thursday night or something. No school Friday. Cooper mentioned something about some bar he likes in La Jolla."

I haven't heard him mention that, but granted the past month, I've been checked out. He might have said it to me the few times I saw him over break.

But I'm not sure about going out on the town. I just feel like I'd run into Chris with my bad luck.

"Em, with my bad luck, I'd run into Chris or something."

"In La Jolla?!" She laughs "when does he ever go there? Come on. It'll be fun."

I am trying to get over Chris. I am trying to get over this funk I'm in. I really, really am. So maybe it will be good. Or maybe it'll be disastrous. I won't know until I try. So whatever. I'm in. It's not like she's asking me to go on a date or something. It's a freaking bar with my friends. It should be fine. And fun!

So I give in. I'll go out tomorrow night with everyone. "Fine. I'm in. But the minute I'm not having fun, I'm out of there."

"But you can't make yourself not have fun! You can't think about him. Just hang with us."

"That's easy to say," I sigh, "but what if Cooper orders a blue moon? Then I'll think about him because he drank blue moons. THEN WHAT?"

Emily rolls her eyes and I can tell she's annoyed. Not legit annoyed, but annoyed enough to earn an eye roll from her, for sure. "I get it. I really, really do. But he cheated on you point blank, Gabs. It's not like you two drifted apart, broke up, and there's still hope. No. You NEED to get over him. And I'm pushing so hard for that because you're my best friend and I love you. I don't want you to make the same mistakes twice. I don't want you to want to go backwards."

Ugh I have the greatest friends. I know that. "You're right."

"I'm right," she says with a small smile, "let's clean out this closet, grab some dinner and then watch Friends."

"Yes!" I exclaim, feeling a bit better.

All you really need in life is your best friend and some really funny TV show. Right?

* * *

"Isn't this bar cool? Semi-new, designed for college kids, basically," Julia tells us as she sips on some water since she's our DD.

"Yeah, it's cool," I shrug. Bars aren't really my thing.

Emily then comes over to us and hands me the margarita I ordered. She has some fruity drink that I'm not familiar with. I stick to margaritas, the occasional beer and mojitos every now and then. But Emily lives for mixed drinks. For anything fruity. Always trying something new. So who knows what this is.

She sits down next to me and we all look out at the guys. Well, their guys. Cooper and Tyler.

They're playing pool with some of our other friends and honestly, it's not a bad night, but it's definitely not keeping me from thinking about everything.

But then I do. I stop thinking about everything and just focus on him.

Troy. The guy from my class.

The guy who's apparently friends with Cooper.

He's here. And he's saying hi to Cooper and some of the other guys and he's laughing and smiling and he brought some friends with him. And oh my gosh, he is so beautiful. I almost forgot how beautiful he was because he didn't sit next to me in class yesterday. I only saw him on the way out.

"Oh, I didn't know he invited Troy," Julia tilts her head as she looks over to them.

"He's in my Art History class," I tell her so maybe it strikes a conversation about him. How is he friends with Julia and Cooper but I've NEVER seen him before or have even heard of him? Kind of weird, no? "Small world."

Julia looks over at me and chuckles. "Really? Yeah, small world. He used to date Callie. Well, I'd hardly call it dating."

She would? Why? And why am I suddenly interested? I don't know. Maybe I'm just trying to distract myself from the mess that's my life. "Why?"

"They were just hanging out for like a month or so, maybe a bit more," she shrugs as she sips on her water, "I don't think they were even official and if they were, they would have only had to be for like a week or so. But that's how we met him. He was literally always over, and so Cooper and him became friends and Callie thinks it's totally weird, but it's not like he's going to be bringing Troy around to our place, you know?"

"Oh so they've only been friends for, like, a month," now I get why I don't know him, "makes sense."

Julia nodded. "Yeah, yeah, he's cool. Him and Cooper hit it off. And he has no loyalty to Callie so why not? They're, like, new bffs."

Well, good for Cooper, I guess. I don't really know what to say to that.

So I don't say anything. I just look ahead and see that Troy now has a beer in his hand, don't know where it came from so quickly, but it's there and he's leaning against the pool table talking to the guy. Cooper's throwing his head back in laughter. My other friend Brody is also laughing. And all those guys just look like they've having the best time. Like they're all such good friends. And it's weird because I've been around Cooper, Brody, Seth, Liam and Tyler. I'm used to that. I'm used to us all hanging out. But I mean, it's nice to see they're opening up their friend group. I don't know.

Cooper then comes over to us, gives Julia a kiss on the lips and then sits down for a moment.

Troy looked around and once he saw where Cooper was, our eyes kind of met. And we held graze for longer that I thought we would.

And then all of a sudden, he's walking over here, with a beer in his hand, looking hot as fuck. Seriously. He's so hot. Jeans, a plain black t shirt and these shoes that I don't think I've ever seen, but they're casual and cool. And it's SO hard to look away from him.

When he comes over, I try to be as cool as possible. I try to make it seem like I come to bars. And I'm not really sure why I want to act cool.

"Hey," he tells us, but even though he looked at me first, he smiled at Julia so I think it was meant for her. I mean, he does know her the best. I hardly know him, to be honest. Don't even know his last name. "What's up?"

"Long time no see," Julia laughs as she gets up and gives him a hug, "how was your break?"

He laughs and takes a sip of his beer before answering. "It was good. I spent two weeks in Europe which were absolutely incredible."

Europe? Oh my gosh. I've always wanted to go to Europe. Ugh, he's so lucky. And so beautiful. I can't get over it. Like, sure there are dozens of hot guys out there and hello, Ryan Gosling still exists, but for some reason, Troy is just so... dreamy. Like so absolutely beautiful.

And I can't help, but stare.

"Gabriella!" I heard Julia say my name and I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Sorry, what?" Fuck. how embarrassing.

She gave me a weird look, and the motioned to him. "This is Troy."

I was going to tell her that I know, but thought against it. What if he doesn't even remember me? I'm not that memorable. And we only said a few things to each other that first day. I don't think he even saw me in class today. So no, definitely won't do that. I'll just say hi or something. Keep it short.

Before I could even say anything, he speaks up, "yeah, actually, we have Art History together."

"Oh, right!" Julia says, remembering what I told her a bit ago and probably making it seem like I'm talking about him to her. Great, thanks, Julia.

"Yeah, hey," I smile at him before bringing my margarita up to my lips and taking a drink so I don't really have to say much else.

Troy pulls out a chair though and sits down, off to the side by Cooper, and kind of just hangs out. Emily is looking down at her phone and Julia and Cooper are talking in each other's ear being all lovey dovey and I'm just sitting here... quiet. And so is Troy. And it's not awkward or anything, I just don't really know what to do or what to say. But it's not like he's sitting next to me so I don't think I have to start conversation.

It's a little awkward to be honest. No one's really talking and we're just sitting here doing nothing, really. I'm not even sure why Troy came over.

"Do you guys wanna do shots?" Cooper finally speaks up after pulling himself away from Julia.

"Down," Emily looks up from her phone and then jumps up, "you guys?"

She's looking at me, then looking at Julia and finally at Troy. But I'm not down for shots. I hate shots. She knows this so I'm not even sure why she's asking me. I think she thinks I'm just down for whatever tonight to get my mind off Chris, but nah. I hardly like getting drunk, to be honest. A couple drinks here and there does the trick. So I'm passing.

I shake my head as I lift my margarita up in the air, "I'm good with this, thanks."

Julia is obviously driving so she passes on the shots. "I have to go to the bathroom, actually, so be right back."

"Well come on," Emily pushes, grabbing Cooper by the hand and pulling him up so they can go over to the bar, "go grab Tyler."

Before they walk away, Cooper looks over at Troy and asks if he wants to come, but he just holds up his beer and shakes his head. They then walk away and go do some shorts or whatever. And once again, it's a bit awkward. It's the two of us, just sitting here, and I have no idea what to do or what do say.

It's even more awkward because we're feet apart from each other.

I look over at the bar and Emily, Cooper, Tyler and Brody are all standing there ready to take shots.

"Small world, huh?"

"What?" I look back at Troy, "oh, yeah, I know."

He gives me a small smile and sips on his beer before saying anything else. "I mean, UCSD is a pretty big school."

It is. Yes, there are SO many people going there that it's actually pretty crazy that we're both here right now... because we have a mutual friend. Like, he could have sat anywhere he wanted in that classroom that day, yet there was an empty seat by me and now we're here. It's just weird how small the world could be sometimes. And how we have some friends in common. You know?

"Have you been friends with Cooper for a while?" I ask even though I know the answer, "because he's pretty much my best friend."

"Yeah, no" he laughs, "a few months maybe. He's cool, though."

He didn't mention how they met, which is fine, because it's not what I asked. But I don't know, thought maybe it'd come up. And usually I'm good at small talk, but for the life of me, I can't engage. I don't know if it's because he's really hot and he intimidates me or because I'm just not in the best mind frame at the moment, you know? "Yeah, I think so, too."

Troy gives me a weird look, kind of. Not weird, but like a look with a sly smile and I know exactly what he's thinking... I'm in love with Cooper Westfield.

But FUCK NO. I know that's common. The best friend loving the best friend of the opposite sex. But seriously. It's so platonic. I LOVE Julia. I think they're great together and even if Julia wasn't in the picture, it probably would never, ever happen. We're just too good of friends. There was never anything there.

"No," I shake my head, "no. I don't like Cooper. Him are Julia are, like, perfect together."

"I didn't say anything," he laughs, putting one hand up since his other one is preoccupied holding his beer.

"Yeah, but I think I know what you were thinking," I tell him with a small smile so he knows I'm not mad at his assumption. "I get it, but nah. We're been friends for far too long to have anything. Nope. Nothing there at all."

I think I may be going overboard with my explanation. I could have just said no and that would have been a fine answer for him.

So now, I think I just look like a weirdo.

"They are pretty great together, huh?" Troy looks over at Cooper and Julia who are laughing together. Cooper's hands are on her waist and Julia is smiling slash laughing at something he's saying and they are great together. Not only great, but CUTE. Genetically, they match up. "Haven't known them for very long, but the times I've been around them, which have been enough, I can tell there's something great there. Hope everything works out for them."

"Yeah, me too," I smile, thinking about the possibility that they could get MARRIED.

And I also smile because this guy, who's single apparently, and is free to go out with his guys and get drunk and pick up chicks is sitting here admiring some couple instead of wanting his new boy Cooper to be single alongside him.

It's something that happens. Once you don't have a girlfriend, you want everyone around you to not have a girlfriend so you all can party together.

Maybe I'm just looking too much into it, maybe I'm thinking what I want to think about this guy... that he's sweet and nice and everything because it'll make him that much better or something. I don't know. It's just something I'm feeling right now about this guy. And I think it's nice that he's happy for them.

"Do you want another drink?" he asks me.

"Oh, um, no, I'm good," I look down at my margarita and realize I'm almost done with it. "Thanks."

Silence. Again. And I really don't know what else to say or do.

So when everyone comes back over, I'm relived. They all sit back down, closing the space between me and Troy and they look... loose. And happy.

Well, except for Julia since she's sober and our DD.

And before I know it, everyone that was playing pool comes over and we're all just sitting down in this big booth slash table and talking. Laughing. Laughing and talking. And it's nice.I'm actually enjoying myself. I always enjoy being with my friends, but I just thought tonight would be no use because there are obviously still hurt feelings there and I didn't think I could pull myself away from that and just have a good time, you know?

But I am. I'm laughing. I'm drinking. I'm genuinely enjoying my friends and having a good time with them.

And after an hour and a half or so, we're all standing outside the bar saying out goodbyes.

Seth, Liam, and Brody are ubering it. Troy and his two friends have a ride figured out or something. And well, Julia's taking Emily, Cooper and I home so we're all going in different directions. Everyone hugs it out pretty much. Well, bro hugs, handshakes, whatever. And us girls give the guys a hug.

But I don't give a hug to Troy and his friends because well, I don't know them. That doesn't mean I won't say bye to him because I mean, I kind of know them. I kind of know Troy. Right? "Nice seeing you."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see you in class," he tells me before shooting me a smile.

I'm not exactly sure what that means, though. Will he wave from his seat across the room or will he take a seat next to me?

Whatever the case, I'm all of a sudden nervous to go to class. Something I've never been before in my life.

And it's because Troy Bolton is so hot.


	4. Chapter 4

I went home this weekend because it was my cousins birthday and I couldn't miss that.

And it was fun. Her big 21st birthday. I actually forgot about all my problems that night and just focused on having fun with her and some friends.

But now, I'm standing in my living room and I'm back to that place I was before I went. That place I've been in for the past few weeks. That place I so badly want to get out of, but don't know how. And I fucking hate it that I'm here.

"Em!" I called out to her but there was no answer.

Maybe she's not home. I should call her. And ask where the fuck she is and why she would do this!

The minute I take out my phone from my purse to call her, the front door opens and in walks Emily, Tyler and Julia.

They all come in laughing, but the minute they see me in the living room with this look on my face, all their faces drop. And it's like this for a moment. Their faces dropped, my face livid. And it's silent. And awkward. And all I want to do is scream at her. At Julia. At whoever did this behind my back.

"Who got rid of all of Chris' stuff?"

"Okay, I know you wanted to give it back to him, Gabs, but..."

"Why!?" I screamed, "why would? You know I wanted to do that for closure! I NEEDED that closure, Emily. You can't just do whatever you feel like. It's not your life. It's mine. And my decisions. I wanted to give back his stuff. And I wanted to do it myself! FUCK YOU. FUCK THIS! STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!"

Emily blinks and doesn't say anything. Julia is quiet. Tyler has a hand on Emily's back, like he's ready to defend her and whatever, he should, but ugh.

Usually Emily is not confrontation. That's me. I'm the loud one. She's soft spoken and nice and hates fighting and yelling.

So it's a surprise when she speaks up to me in the way she does. "You don't want closure. You say you do, but it's just a fucking lie to us. You want to go over there in your best outfit, you want him to say sorry and you want to get back with him because it's easier to forgive than to move on. And that's a bunch of fucking bullshit because he's an asshole who treated you wrong. So excuse me for fucking looking out for you. I won't do it again!"

With that, she stormed right past me, almost knocking me down and headed towards the kitchen.

Tyler didn't say anything. He kind of just gave me a blank look and did what any good boyfriend would do: he went after her.

Julia stood there, looking like she can't believe Emily raised her voice. She always states her opinion, yes, but in such a calm manner. In such a rational way. And so this was out of the box for Em. And I can't believe I drove her to it.

"She's just looking out for you, you know," Julia backs her up.

"I know, but Julia, I wanted to give it to him. I needed to do that for myself. For..."

"You know she's right," she says, coming closer to me, "you'd be willing to forgive him because it's easier to forgive than move on, but I don't think that's the best decision. You say you want to move on, you say you're okay, you say you don't want to get back with him, but you're lying to us. I know you are."

Ugh. I WANT that, though. Wanting it and feeling it are different. It's just... I want to get married. I want to have babies. I thought at this age, I would be with that person. I want to be with my husband and the father of my children for a good amount of years. And Chris and I were halfway there so I think I'm just trying to hold onto a fantasy or something. And that sounds SO dumb, I know it does.

But there's nothing I want more than to move on because I know I deserve to move on. "It's hard. It's really fucking hard."

I sit down on the couch and put my head in my hands and think about what an asshole I've been. My friends are trying to help me and I'm giving them nothing to work with but lies. I keep telling myself I'm fine. I keep telling them I want to move on and shit, but I'm acting the complete opposite.

I'm checking his social media accounts, I'm looking at pictures of us, I was holding onto his things.

"We know it's hard, we're not telling you to be over it," Julia comes and sits next to me, "we're just telling you to not want to go back."

"I shouldn't want to, but that text he sent me on my first day of school, the couple he sent after that, the pictures I feel like he's putting up as a message to me," I tell her, "my favorite fucking restaurant in all of San Diego, he's all of a sudden reading my favorite book! He obviously wants me to see! I told her I didn't want to give back his stuff, that someone else should do it, but I changed my mind because I just think... I think maybe, just maybe he still loves me or something like that. And she knew that. She told me that if it would bring me closure, to do it. But I know I was lying to her. It's just... it's all so fucked up, I know it is and I fucking hate that. But I can't deny that I feel like there's still something there. That maybe he's sorry and wants to start over."

Julia sighed. And stayed quiet for longer than I thought she would.

Something's up. Obviously something's up. I know Emily and I know that if she gives you her word, she sticks by it.

And I can't believe it's taken me, like, five whole minutes to not think something was up. She obviously took these boxes back to him because she knows something and she definitely wants me to stay away from him. Right? That has to be it. It has to be the only explanation. Ugh.

"Tell me what you know," I demand Julia.

"I wasn't there," she shakes her head, "you need to ask Emily, Tyler and Cooper."

What is going on here? Did he... did he come and did they get into a huge fight and he stormed out of here with all his stuff? Did they take his stuff to him and something happened? I'm confused. And I really, really need to find out what's going on.

So I get up, take a deep breath and then march over to the kitchen where Emily's sitting around the island and Tyler's in front of her.

"I'm sorry," I apologize and even though it's abrupt and abrasive, I absolutely mean it. "Please explain everything."

Emily's face softens and I know she knows I didn't mean anything and I didn't mean to blow up on her. She knows me. She knows my heart. And she knows that I would never intentionally hurt her. "It's gonna suck."

Great. But honestly, my life sucks right now so who even cares? "Please just tell me everything."

She nods and I go over and sit next to her while she takes a deep breath.

"Friday night, when you were in LA, Julia, Ty, Coop and I went out. We went for burgers and we all ran into Chris. It was um, a bit awkward, but we were all cordial, as cordial as we could be. He was hanging out with Cole and you know Cole and Ty are friends so it would have been weird if we didn't stand around and chat for a moment so we did. And then Chris pulled me aside and asked how you were and I said fine, and he said he misses you and he thinks he made the biggest mistake and he regrets it and honestly, as shitty as he's been, I felt bad for him. I know he loved you and I know you loved him, so it was, like, sad and weird seeing that. He said he misses you everyday and Julia walked over to us in the middle of it all so she could vouch for me. We both believed him because we both saw you guys almost everyday. We knew your relationship... you guys did love each other."

I know there's a but to this. I know whatever comes next, I'm not going to like it. But hearing this, ugh, it hurts. It does.

Emily gave me a small smile and then took another deep breath, "it was this weird feeling of maybe you guys could work it out. But that feeling quickly disappeared when Coop, Ty and I went to Porters and saw him making out with some girl."

And there it is. My stomach dropped. Having my friends actually see my ex boyfriend, someone they thought of as a friend as well, do that is embarrassing.

Fuck Chris. Fuck everything. Fuck this. Just.. fuck! Why is this happening to me?

"It wasn't some random girl. It was the same girl he had been talking to while you two were together so obviously he was lying to me. Or maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was telling me the truth, but he wants his cake and he wants to eat it, too. Who really knows. Cooper was so mad that he went up to him, basically almost punched him and it was just a mess. We weren't planning on telling you, but I didn't think you'd react that way to knowing we took it upon ourselves to get rid of his things because we didn't want you to get sucked in."

I have the best friends, I do. And I'm such an asshole. I'm just getting so caught up in my heartbreak and not looking at the bigger picture.

Christopher Matthews screwed me over. He cheated on me. He's with some girl. And he doesn't respect me.

That's it. That's what I need to focus on and remind myself that there is no relationship without trust. And I don't trust him. I have to realize that there's no jumping back into the relationship we had, the one I thought we had, so that's it. I have to move on once and for all. I have to if I want to be happy.

And I do. I so desperately want to be happy.

"I'm sorry," I tell her and then turn to Tyler, "I'm sorry. I'm just... I never saw any of this coming."

"It's okay," Emily puts her hand on my shoulder, "it's okay. We're not mad at you. I know hundreds of girls go through this and want to get back with their boyfriend even though they screwed her over. It happens. But we love you enough to not want to see you get hurt again like that."

"No, yeah, I really do mean it this time," I take a deep breath, "I'm done with Chris Matthews and I'm moving on if it's the last thing I do."

Julia smiled at me, Tyler didn't look entirely convinced, and Emily held my hand in support.

It's going to take some time to be completely happy, but I'm ready.

I'm ready to just move forward.


	5. Chapter 5

I know it's going to take some time, but hearing what Emily told me yesterday, it was like a light bulb went on in my head.

And today, this morning, I woke up and I felt... refreshed.

There's no hope for Chris and I so really, the only thing left to do is leave him in the past and move forward. Finish school, graduate, move back to LA and then get on with my life and pray to meet my husband and have kids and be happy and healthy and everything I've ever wanted in life.

So that's what I'm going to do... I'm looking forward, I'm MOVING forward and I'm praying for the best.

"Can I sit there?"

"Yeah," I tell Troy as soon as he asks, "go ahead."

He squeezes in and takes a seat next to me. "Thanks. I don't really know anyone else in here."

Oh. Yeah, me neither. But he doesn't need an excuse to sit next to me. He can sit next to me all he wants. Obviously, I'm not going to tell him that. No way, I'd sound so creepy. So instead, I just smile and nod, "yeah, I know, I think it's mostly underclassmen, to be honest."

"I guess that's what we get for putting it off for so long," he laughs, "you into art?"

"Hardly," I shake my head and open up my laptop so I can get ready to take notes. I take them better on a computer because it's faster. "You?"

He shrugs, "I wasn't really, but I went to Europe this summer and I went to all these museums in Rome and it was all so cool. Paintings that people painted. It was fascinating. So instead of just taking Art, I switched into this class like two days before school started. I think it'll be interesting."

Yeah, maybe. I mean, I looked over the syllabus and it doesn't seem boring, but eh, history is just not something I'm interested in, like, at all. "How'd you like Europe? My friend went two summers ago and I almost tagged along."

"You should've," he says, setting his phone down on his notebook, "it was so much fun. So beautiful. I went right after Christmas for two weeks."

"What countries did you visit?"

"Italy, Spain, and France. Italy was probably my favorite, but Spain was pretty cool. Good food."

Man, I'm jealous. I so desperately wanted to go to Europe with my friend but I had to take summer school. It just wasn't an option to not take it so it bummed me out. But hopefully I'll go sometime in the future. "I've always wanted to go to Spain. It's at the top of my bucket list, for sure."

Troy turns in his seat a bit and or the first time today, I'm seeing his bright blue eyes.

They were SO blue. And because of his dark eyebrows, they stood out even more and holy fuck, they're so mesmerizing.

"It was at the top of mine, too. And it exceeded my expectations."

"Really?" I'm happy to hear that because one of my friends who has gone to Spain said it was alright. But another one said it was great. And now hearing Troy say it was great, too, well, I'm sure it's great. How could it not be? "I'll go someday, hopefully."

Before he could really say anything else, the professor turned on the projector and was ready to start lecture.

So for the rest of class, we didn't really talk.

After class, though, instead of going to the parking lot, I headed to the bookstore to grab a book I need and he was heading to a building next to it, so we walked over together. It was nice. Small talk. About none other than Cooper... the one person we have in common that we could always talk about.

"Well, I'm this way, but I'll see you Wednesday," Troy tells me as we reach the bookstore.

"Yeah, okay," I tell him as I stop walking and turn to face him.

"Save me a seat." With that, he walks away.

And just like that, I think I have a friend in the hottest guy I've ever seen.

* * *

"I'm going to set you up with someone," Julia tells me as we're all having dinner that night, "I know a really nice guy."

What? I look up from my nachos and shake my head forcefully, "no. No way. Nope."

Julia drops her shoulders and gives me a frown, "come on. I know you're still going through emotions, but it's been over a month and I think the best way to get over someone is maybe to date someone else. This guy is really nice. And he's cute. Right, Coop?"

"Huh?" Cooper looks up from digging into his burrito, "oh, um, sure."

"He is!" Julia insists. "He's seen you out with me and he's asked about you before, but you were taken. Now, you're single. So it's perfect!"

I might be single now, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to date. It takes time. I don't know how much time. But I think it does. How can I date someone when I'm still not over everything? "J, I appreciate you looking out for me and wanting me to be happy, but I just don't think I'm ready for that yet."

She sighs as she picks up her drink, "fine."

"Do you guys have anyone you want to set me up with?" I ask Tyler, Emily and Cooper.

They all look at each other, and by the tone of my voice, I think they've figured I'm not too thrilled with Julia's suggestion and I'm trying to stop everything right here, right now. I'd rather get this conversation over with than have Emily come up to me next week and tell me the same thing.

Emily shakes her head, "no, I don't, but I don't think it's a bad idea. Tyler wasn't my rebound, but you know..."

"Hey, you said you were over it!" Tyler turns to her.

"I was," Emily puts her hand on his cheek and caresses it, "I was 90% over it."

Tyler laughs, not really caring, since they've been together for so long now that it doesn't even matter. But I do remember that. I remember going to some BBQ our new friend Chelsea was throwing and them talking for a while in the corner. Emily thought he was hot and nice, but didn't think anything of it since she just got out of a year relationship. He asked her out and she said no. But it was around the time Emily started believing in fate and that maybe she was meant to go to that BBQ to meet him since that morning, she wasn't feeling too good and wanted to bail. So, she ended up saying yes and here they are...

Together for two years and seriously in love.

So I guess in that sense, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea, but I just don't think it's going to change anything for me.

"It's not a bad idea," Emily says, "but if you don't want to date anyone, that's perfectly okay."

I do want to date someone. I'm a relationship girl. I want that person to be there, cuddling with me while we're watching movies and eating a whole bunch of junk food. I want that person to lay next to me in bed until we fall asleep. I want that person who will tell me everyday that I'm beautiful and that they love me. I do. I want all of it. I want a family and to be married and build a life together. That's the ultimate dream.

But I just don't think I'm ready to look for that yet because I don't want to get burned.

Yeah, Chris made me have a wall. Before him, I was completely okay with dating and then not having it work out because whatever? On to the next.

He was my first real, deep relationship, though, and having to go through that, falling in love and then getting betrayed so badly, well, of course I have walls up now. Of course I'm going to be careful. Of course I'm scared to let someone else in and screw me over like that. There are major walls.

My boyfriend in high school and I dated for 8 months and I loved him, but it wasn't deep. It wasn't anything like with Chris.

And then I met Brody my freshman year of college. We dated for half a year and I didn't really fall in love with him, but he was so good to me. It was just a matter of it fizzling out, not having something deep there anymore.

So, I've never really been betrayed. But I didn't have walls up then. I didn't have anything. I was optimistic. I was all for love, all the time, anywhere.

Now, I'm cautious. I'm going to be picky. I'm going to find things that are going to make me want to leave.

And so, I don't think I'm necessarily ready for that.

"I think I'm okay for now, but if I want to be set up, I'll let you guys know," I tell them.

They all look at each other and laugh and know that it's a lie I'm telling them. It kind of is and it kind of isn't. I want to believe myself, but I know that I am probably never going to ask them to set me up because I've never liked set ups. They're weird. And awkward. And you feel pressured to feel something.

But whatever, I don't really care right now. I just want to enjoy my nachos and not talk about my love life, potential dates or Chris.

Because I'm moving on. Like I've said.

And I'm really serious about it this time. I _want_ to move on.


	6. Chapter 6

Art History is actually not that bad.

Especially when you have someone like Troy siting next to you, who's always whispering funny things.

It's probably annoying to other people that every once in a while, I'll let out a chuckle, but I can't help it. The professor says something or someone will ask a question and he'll lean in and whisper something funny about it, and I just can't help but laugh because it's funny. Like, my kind of humor funny.

It definitely keeps the class more enjoyable, but without it, I'd still like it.

"Heading to the parking lot?" Troy asks me after class as we make our way out of the lecture hall.

"No," I grip my laptop tighter so it doesn't fall out of my arms, "Otterson Hall. Meeting my friend after her class for lunch."

"Cool. Let's go," he motions his head in that direction.

I know he's not inviting himself to lunch because he has another class. In that direction. Right next to Otterson Hall, actually. So yeah, I guess walking together is fine. I like Troy. He's nice, and funny and always has something to say. He can keep a conversation going. Plus, he's really hot, so looking at him isn't so bad, either. Even though I probably should stop because I'm pretty sure he's going to catch me one day and it's going to be embarrassing.

We make our way through the crowd and once we're side by side again, he starts talking.

But I'm not really sure what he's saying because my mind draws a blank. I stop walking. And I just stare ahead.

"What?" Troy stops as well and stands in front of me, blocking my view now of the person I was just staring at. "Hey, you okay?'

NO. I'm not okay. For some stupid reason, my ex boyfriend is standing in front of Otterson Hall. What business does he have doing there? He's supposed to be in the lower part of campus. That's where all his classes should be. What the fuck. I wasn't supposed to run into him at school. I wasn't. We have different majors. We're in different buildings at all times. And fuck. This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm not supposed to be seeing him right now. UGH.

I realize I haven't said anything. I'm just standing here like an idiot. But I can't help it. I can't help, but just stand here and wonder why this is happening.

"Are you okay?" Troy repeats, "what's up?"

"Um, yeah, I'm fine," I shake my head a bit and look away from him, "nothing, it's just my ex boyfriend is standing over there and we're, um, I'm not, there's just... he's not supposed to be there and I, we're not really talking and it's just..."

"Oh," Troy says, but I'm not really sure he understands because I don't even think I explained myself properly, "bad break up?"

I'D SAY. But I'm obviously not going to yell that at him. I'm standing here contemplating what to do. I can't just tell my friend to meet me someone else because her car's right next to this building. It's easier. But fuck. I don't want to walk past him. I don't want to make eye contact. I thought I wanted all this but ever since Emily told me that, I'm so done. I can't with him.

So I just nod my head at Troy and take a peek at what Chris is doing. He's just standing there, talking to some guy.

"Really bad." Bad, like to the point where I threw a water bottle at him. "And I think I really hate him."

"Let's go around then," Troy shrugs, "come on."

"Wait, what?" Go around? Like, walk back down these stairs, walk some more, climbs the stairs on the other side? Fuck. I'm lazy. We're RIGHT HERE. And all of that seems like too much work. Plus, doesn't Troy have a class? "No, you don't have to do that. You have a class right now, go ahead... I'll um..."

Troy smiles at me, looks back at Chris, but I know he probably doesn't know who he is, and then looks back at me. "We'll just walk past him, you'll laugh at some joke I'm about to tell you and everything will be fine."

Is he seriously right now? He'd really try to distract me? Or help me? Make it seem like I'm fine even though I'm really not? I mean, Troy hardly knows me!

"I'm wasting your time," I tell him, "just go. You're gonna be late for class. Maybe I'll just wait until he leaves or something."

"Come on, make him eat his heart out after whatever happened between the two of you," he smiles at me, "walking past him with a guy he doesn't know who you're laughing with, looking like this? Oh that would make him squirm... well, if you're into that."

I know what he means. Into making him jealous. And I think at this point, I am. It's petty and beneath me, but after what he put me through... well.

And oh my gosh, did he just compliment me? I'm sure he's just trying to be nice and make me feel better and he actually doesn't think I look good. I threw my hair up one minute before class started. I'm in yoga pants and an over sized sweatshirt. And I have running shoes on. Running shoes. When I'm not even going to the gym or anything. I would hardly call this looking cute. And I know Chris wouldn't stop and stare at me because I look good. No way. He always liked my hair down. So, he's kinda wrong.

But I don't tell him that. I think I just blush. And then I remind myself he's not even flirting with me, just trying to help me out. "Thanks."

"We don't have to," he shakes his head, "do whatever you feel is comfortable."

"Cooper told you, huh?" I figured it out. I figured why he's so persistent on trying to make Chris jealous or whatever.

He could have easily lied and said no because I wouldn't be able to tell if e is. Again, I barely know the guy. But he didn't. He just shrugged. "Maybe. Not in a, let me tell people your business way, but we were hanging out one night, him and Julia were really upset about something that happened and it came up."

Cool. So now he knows my boyfriend cheated on me. That's great.

"I don't need you to feel bad for me," I tell him just so we're clear, "I'm fine."

"Oh, no," he shakes his head, "it's shitty what he did, but feel bad? You're what, 21, 22? You're young. I don't feel bad."

For some reason, I can't even pretend to be annoyed or mad that it seemed like he was pitying me or something. He makes it so hard. Just that look on his face. I don't know. He just seems like a genuinely nice guy and that's hard to come around these days... especially when they look like that.

So I suck it up. And go along with it. Why not? Chris is an asshole. "Okay, let's go. Your joke better be funny."

"Oh, it is," he gives me a smile and then steps to the side.

I took a deep breath, waited for some people to get out of the way and then walked.

Chris has seen me with no makeup, tears rolling down my face in pain before so really, the way I look right now is nothing new to him. What I am annoyed about is the fact that this is the first time I'm seeing him since the break up and this is how I look. This isn't how I imagined it, you know? He was supposed to see me out and I was going to be wearing some red lipstick, a dress or something and he was going to eat his heart out then.

Not right now. Yeah, right he'll eat his heart out right here. Please.

But Troy's fucking attractive that I know he's going to think something's going on so that's okay with me.

And as soon as we almost reach him, I make it a point to not look his way. It's hard, it's so fucking hard, but I don't.

Instead, I genuinely laugh at the punchline of Troy's joke.

Once we pass him and go around the building and we're in the clear, Troy stops and stands in front of me with a smile. "You should have looked. You would have been so happy with the way he was reacting. Like a deer caught in headlights who's pissed off he's about to get ran over or something."

"Really?" I laugh, happy about it even though I shouldn't care at all what he thinks. "Well, thank you."

"Anytime," he shrugs, "funny joke, huh?"

It actually really was. And usually, I don't think jokes are that funny or anything. "I'm going to retell it every chance I get."

He smiles once more before he reaches for the door, "Good. I'm glad. I'll see you later."

"See ya."

And just like that, I now _know_ I made a new friend.

A really hot, new friend.

* * *

"I saw Chris today and it was the worst thing ever," I vent to my friend Summer as we're grabbing dinner.

"Where, at school?" She looks confused, just like I expected her to be.

I nod as I reach for some chips in the middle of the table and dip them deep into this amazing salsa. "Right? I was meeting Chelsea for lunch and she was going to drive so I told her I'd meet her at Otterson Hall since she parked next to it and who do I see? Chris. Just standing there, talking to some guy who I've never seen. Like, what the fuck is he doing on this side of campus? I was there when he picked his classes! I know where he should be!"

Summer laughed as she shook her head and also grabbed some chips. "Did you guys talk? Or did you just see him and ignore him?"

"No. If this was a couple weeks ago, I think I would have been so nervous, but I would have wanted him to stop me and talk to me," I'm completely honest with her, "but after what I found out from Emily, how he's still with the same girl, that it wasn't this lapse of judgement moment, I can't. I just can't."

"Well, good," she looks proud, "you shouldn't get back with him. He's an asshole who didn't know how good he had it."

"Thanks, Sum," I smile at her as I reach for my margarita.

Summer reaches for her iced tea since she's the designated driver and once she has a margarita, she can't stop, so. "Can you believe we're graduating soon? Like, it's so CLOSE, Gabs! Four fucking long years and we're almost done. Ah, I'm so excited."

I'm so excited, too, but also a bit nervous. I mean, school... you just go to school.

And come fall, I'll hopefully be working. Work. It's something I've never done before. Sure, jobs here and there, but never anything like what I want to do.

"And okay, I know it might be super insensitive to bring this up considering everything, but um, you looking for a roommate?"

"What?" I almost choke on my chip.

Summer gives me a small smile and shrugs. "I talked to my parents, and as much as I love San Diego, I just think I need a fresh start somewhere. I didn't go away for college and I don't know. My uncle's agency is in LA, I have a guaranteed job there. It's almost perfect. And maybe we can live together?"

Oh my gosh. I hadn't even thought about my living situation. But yes. One hundred percent. "Of course!"

"Really?" she looks ecstatic, "oh my gosh, yay, because I know you guys were talking about, you know... and I didn't know what you planned to do with that, but I just thought about it this weekend. You really want to?"

"I'm not moving back in with my parents," I laugh, "so yes, yes, let's do it. Let's live together."

"This was so fucking easy," she laughs, "I thought I may have to convince you or something, but okay, yay, I'm so happy!"

Convince me? Oh please. I love Summer so much.

Summer Hayes, who has the prettiest name ever, right?, has become my best friend these past four years. Sure, I have Emily, but she's my best friend from back home. And Summer's my college best friend. The best friend I made in college. And I could not have made it through all those boring GE classes without her. I met her the first day of freshman year in English and we've been friends ever since. The best of friends. She's great friends with Emily, she's friends with Cooper. I'm friends with her best friend. And we're just all friends. We meshed San Diego and LA together and have created this group I think we'll have for the rest of our lives. And I'm so, so thankful she's in my life. She's the best.

So of course I'd move in with her. Of course I want her to move to LA to be closer to me. There's absolutely no hesitation about moving in with her.

Chris and I talked about possibly getting an apartment in LA when we graduate, but it wasn't for sure. Sure, he spent a lot of time at my place with Emily, and slept over more times than I can count, but actually getting a place together? That scared me so it wasn't anything for sure. We threw it out there to our friends and they were for it. I mean, we were pretty serious...

Now that that's over with though, I don't even need to think about it anymore... I'm moving in with Summer!

"Oh wow, you know, nothing was set for me and Chris, we just toyed with the idea and then it left my mind that I'm going to need to find an apartment to live in since I don't want to move back in with my parents," I tell her, "and now that you brought this up, well, it's absolutely perfect."

"I know, right?!" she exclaims, "I'm getting out of San Diego and I'll be living with my best friend!"

"We're going to have so much fun," I'm getting so excited just thinking about it. Summer's the kind of girl you can just lounge around with and do absolutely nothing and the thought of many Saturday nights like that is so exciting to me.

Plus, she's single so we can be single together and get a fresh start back in LA and get our lives started. Ah how exciting!

Okay, we need to start apartment shopping!

"I'm going to call my uncle so he can show us some places," she tells me, "when should we go out there? I think we should start as soon as possible because what if it doesn't work out with one place? We don't want to get out there in June and just have it be a disaster. I want everything ready before that."

"No, yeah, for sure," I grab some more chips because they're way too addicting, "yeah, call him. We can go as early as next weekend."

"Next weekend?" she looks confused, "Cooper's birthday?"

Oh fuck. It's Cooper's birthday. The big 22. Shit. I forgot about that for a minute. "Never mind."

Summer laughed, "yeah, I was about to say, you can't miss that. But I saw Julia this morning and she told me she's just going to have a party for him at your guys' place or something like that. Or that maybe he'd want to go home to LA, but she didn't think so. I don't know."

"Yeah, it's 22, not that important of an age. I think we'll just throw something at our place and he'll be fine with that. So the weekend after?"

"Yes!" Summer claps her hands together.

And just like that, I have a set roommate and I'm so, so excited about it.


	7. Chapter 7

Even though Julia made this whole party happen, it's taking place at mine and Emily's house.

Why? Oh because Emily and I live in a HOUSE.

Yeah, that's right, us college kids live in a freaking house in San Diego while we're going to school. Um, how cool is that?

Okay, well, it's all Emily's doing, really. Emily's parents have a house down here. Before we decided we wanted to go here, they bought a house, a vacation home since they love coming to San Diego and well, here we are... occupying it. It was perfect. It was empty for months out of the year so why not? Why not put it to good use? We didn't have to go through the whole dorming thing. Or apartment hunting when it came time to that. Nope. We just moved into this house and it could not have worked out better. Who knew 7 years ago when her parents were buying this house that it would benefit us? Not us.

We've been happily living here for almost four years and we love it. We almost don't want to move out. But we both do want to move back to Los Angeles.

"I'm crashing here, I've already had two shots," Summer tells me.

I laugh and tell her that's fine. My bed is always open for her. "Have you seen Em?"

Summer shrugged as she put her hand in the bowl of chips on the kitchen counter, "um, I saw her outside about five minutes ago looking awfully cozy with Tyler so they might be having sex in her room by now or something. Who knows. I think I'm already drunk."

"Okay, thanks," I laugh again. She's too much sometimes. But ew. Never mind, won't look for Emily anymore. "Pace yourself, Sum."

She waves me off as I go outside and grab a cup so I can get myself a drink. I don't really like to drink when I'm out, but if we're having something at home, I'm all for having a few drinks. I'm home and not going anywhere so why not down a couple?

Besides, I haven't been drunk in a long time. I probably should be. I probably need it. After all, these past couple months have been SHITTY.

So I grab a bottle of rum, fill it a little more than half way and then fill the rest with some orange soda.

I look around the place and people are swarming in. Cooper was in a frat his first two years here, something I very much hated, but even though he's not anymore, he still remained friends with everyone so he's pretty popular. Julia invited her friends. I mean, she is from here. She knows a lot of people.

And so does Summer. So we've somehow managed to find ourselves in the San Diego social scene. It's cool. I like it.

"Whoa," I hear someone say as they put their hands on the back of my arms.

"Ah, sorry," I'm mortified that I just backed into someone, but even more mortified when I turn around and find out it's Troy. I backed into Troy and almost caused him to fall backwards. Shit. "Troy..."

He gave me a small smile as I found my balance. "You drunk already?"

It probably seems like I'm drunk since I was laughing at something someone was saying and stumbling backwards, but nope, just lost my balance. How embarrassing, though. Imagine if I would have spilled this drink? Or made him fall? Ah. Thank God I didn't. "Um, no. I'm just... I'm just a klutz."

"I know this is super lame to ask at a party, but do you wanna get together sometime to study?"

"What?" Oh my gosh. He's SO cute. Asking me to study with him while we're at a party. WHO DOES THAT? And he's acknowledging it. But still. He's fucking cute. And like right off the bat. HA. "Oh, yeah, for sure. Do you actually think we need to know all those images for the test?"

He shrugs, "not sure. But it's better if we do, probably."

Yeah, he's right. 20 images to learn in the next two weeks for our first big test. Ahhh. "Well, I'm free whenever you want to get started."

"Okay, cool, yeah, we can figure it out later, I just thought I'd ask because it just came to mind," he chuckles a bit before moving over so someone can get through to inside the house, "but um, yeah, I'm gonna go find Coop, wish him a happy birthday. I'll see you around."

"Yeah, yeah, see you later."

And with that, he walked away to find Cooper and I kind of just stood there.

Troy Bolton is fucking hot. And in the past three weeks that I've had class with him, I've found out that he's also incredibly funny and nice. And oh my gosh, I'd be dammed if I develop a crush on him because it's the last thing I fucking need right now. The last thing.

But it's so hard when he seems like a genuine guy. And he's funny as fuck. And obviously really, really, really HOT. How can someone not?

I push that out of my mind and go fill my cup up with more liquor. I need more liquor because I need to stop thinking about this.

I'm not going to crush on Troy Bolton. I'm just not.

But when I look over to where him and Cooper are and they're laughing about something, I can't help but just be so mesmerized. When they stop laughing and he bites down, you can see an indent in his cheek and it's by far the hottest thing, like, EVER.

Ugh. I look away before anything else comes to mind. I can't. I don't want to. I'm off guys. I don't want to date for a while.

Not saying it could happen with Troy, but still. No. It's not a good idea.

So I look away and go distract myself.

* * *

"You okay?"

I turn around and see my friend Seth standing there, a beer in his hand. "I'm fine."

He gives me a small smile and comes around to stand in front of me. I'm just in a weird mood and I know he can tell. We've been friends for a little while now, of course he knows. "I'm not going to tell you have to be over him because you guys were together for a while, but I am going to tell you what everyone else is telling you: he's an asshole and he doesn't deserve you. You can do so much better, Gabs. Don't think about him. Or blame it on yourself."

It's hard not to. "Why would he cheat on me? I don't get it. Sure, this girl may be prettier than me, but I felt like I was the best girlfriend. I thought I gave him enough space, I thought I made him laugh and..."

"Stop," he tells me, "stop. Don't think like that. Are you kidding me? You're better than that. You know it wasn't your fault, or that you did anything wrong."

"Do I?" I'm semi drunk so I'm emotional right now. "Isn't that why people cheat? Because they're bored of who they're with?"

Seth looks annoyed with me and I don't blame him. He cars about me. When Cooper and I met him freshman year, we just clicked and he feels like another brother to me so of course he doesn't want me saying things like that. Things that put me down. And make me seem like the bad guy in this situation.

He moves to the side so someone could pass him and then he grabs me by the shoulders, "listen to me Gabriella, for the last fucking time, it happened because Chris is a selfish asshole and that's the only reason why."

"Sorry," I sigh, "sorry, I'm just in a mood. Seeing all these couples all around me, all the drinks..."

"I get it. You can be sad, you can miss him, whatever," he tells me, "just don't get back with on. You're so much better off."

"Yeah, I..."

I stopped whatever I was saying because my eyes landed on Troy... who was talking to some gorgeous girl.

And for some weird reason, I felt this pang of jealously inside of me. A little bit. It's the weirdest feeling because I know I'm not ready or a boyfriend, but there's no denying he's beautiful and funny and all those good things. And every time I see him, this little crush I'm trying to keep on lockdown continues to grow and now seeing him with this girl... I think it's real. This crush is very real and I cannot believe I have on a crush on someone. I thought it wasn't going to be possible for months and months, but here I am...

Crushing on Troy Bolton.

Fuuuuck. This isn't good. And I don't want to be feeling this way. Jealous.

"What's up?" Seth waves a hand in front of my face and then looks in the direction I'm looking, "who are you look at?"

"No one," I shake it off, "that girl... I almost wore the outfit she's wearing and I got distracted. And yeah, good thing I'm not wearing it."

He gives me a weird look, raising an eyebrow, I think trying to figure out if that's actually what I'm thinking and what I'm distracted by. But he just shrugs it off, "Okay, well, I'm serious, Gabs, you're going to be fine. It's so cliche, but you know there's someone out there for you, right?"

I give him a smile. I really am thankful to have friends I do in times like this. "I know."

"Want another drink?" he reaches for my empty cup.

"Nah, I'm fine," I shake my head, but give him the cup anyway so he can throw away. Ha. "Thanks, though."

And then he walks away and I'm standing here by myself again. I look back at Troy and his girl, and she's laughing at something he said and there's that pang again. Ugh. Before I could look away, though, he glances my way and we make eye contact and it's the worst because now he knows I was staring. Shit. Right away, I look away and head in the direction Seth was to join my friends or something and forget about everything I'm feeling right now.

I sit and laugh with my friends, but every so often, I'm glancing around seeing what he's up to.

Right now, he's currently talking to Cooper and two other guys and I just can't help but stare. It's becoming a real problem.

Ugh. I can't take this anymore. If I was sober, I would totally be fine. But I'm not so I can't help, but stare and be all creepy and I just gotta stop. So I go inside and head to my room and take a little break from everything going on.

Twenty minutes later, I come out, feeling a bit refreshed and maybe sort of hope he's gone by now. It's 12 am, so who knows, maybe he will be.

But just my luck, as I'm coming down the stairs, I see him.

And only him.

"Hey," he tells me with a smile.

"Oh hey," I pretend like I haven't been thinking about him all night or something. "You leaving?"

"Yeah, yeah, have an early morning," he says and I'm wondering what he has to do, but I don't ask because that's weird. I really wanna know, though, for some reason. "Hey, can I get your number to text you about coming over or getting together to study?"

Aw fuck. Butterflies in my stomach. It's for SCHOOL. But still. The fact that he'll have my number. Ahhh. "Yeah, sure."

He smiles, takes out his phone and I wait for him to get it all ready.

And when he looks up at me and tells me to go, I start listening off the numbers. Once he has it saved, he tells me he'll text me later and that was it. He disappeared and I went to the back and finally relaxed a little bit. But not too much, because Troy Bolton has my number.

And he's going to text me. AHHH.

For school stuff, but still, it's still a little exciting.


	8. Chapter 8

"Who do you live with?"

"My best friend," Troy tells me as he grabs a sweatshirt from the couch and tosses it over to the sofa chair.

His place is clean. Like, sure, it's a bit messy, but it doesn't look dirty. It looks clean. And nice. And it might be sexist, but it definitely doesn't look like two guys live here, which is kind of why I asked. Maybe he lives with some girl? A girl best friend? I don't know. But I like it. It's cozy in here.

He picked up a cup from the coffee table and ran it to the kitchen really quick.

And when he came back, he shot me a small smile and a laugh. "My mom put this whole thing together. There's no way Ben and I could do this."

"Right, Ben," I've met him a couple times. At the bar and at campus. I should have known they lived together. "Where is he?"

"LA," he tells me, "he went home for the weekend."

Oh okay. That's cool. I don't really say anything. I put my book and notebook down on the coffee table and then take a look around. It seems like this is his parents house or something. There's pictures, there's drapes, nice couches, a nice TV. But he did say his mom did the whole thing so it makes sense.

He kind of just watched as I made my way around the living room, but if anyone knows me, they know I love looking at pictures.

"My mom framed every single picture and made us put it up," Troy laughs, "you don't typically see that in a guy's apartment, especially in college."

"I like it," I turn around from picture up a picture of him and some girl, "is this your sister?"

He shakes his head as he comes over to me. It looks like I maybe shouldn't have asked because he has this blank look on his face and the smile he had from laughing faded. He doesn't look upset or anything... just blank. "Nah, that's not my sister, this is my sister."

He picked up a picture that was a few over and handed it to me.

Okay, now I see it. The girl in the picture I picked up had blue eyes and that was about it so that's why I asked. But no, this girl definitely looks like him.

"Oh," I say, putting the picture I picked up down, "sorry, I just assumed... blue eyes."

"No, yeah, we get that a lot, actually," he says, bringing his hand to the back of his neck and scratching it before he put the picture of him and his sister down, "but no, this is actually my best friend. Becca. I've known her since I was, like, eight years old. Like you and Cooper."

Oh, like me and Cooper. "And how long have you been in love with her?"

Troy snaps his head and gives me a weird look. "What?"

What? Oh, um, I thought he picked up on my joking tone. Guess not? Maybe he is secretly in love with her or something. "Oh, um, no, I just... when I first told you Cooper and I were best friends, you assumed I was in love with him so I just... is that a stupid question? Sorry. Let's get to work yeah?"

"Right, sorry," he shakes his head, "no, but um, no, you're not wrong, I guess. But it's nothing now. She has a boyfriend of, like, four years."

"Oh, sorry. If I knew, I wouldn't have brought it up," I tell him, feeling bad.

"No, it's whatever. I'm over it. I was in love with her," he laughs, "but that's over with. It was useless."

Okay, well, I feel a bit better. But that must suck.

Being in love with your best friend and they have a boyfriend. A serious boyfriend of, like, four years. Wow. Kind of heartbreaking.

That's why I'm so, so glad Cooper and I don't have those romantic feelings between us. Because we obviously wouldn't be able to do anything about it if they were there because we wouldn't want to lose the friendship. So then we'd have to see the other date and it would just be a disaster and ugh, no.

But I just don't get why she wouldn't date Troy? Because she doesn't want to lose the friendship?

I mean, if I were this Becca girl, I'd say screw the friendship because Troy is so fucking hot, I don't think I'd be able to deal.

"Well, maybe in the future..." I try to be optimistic for him.

"Nah," he laughs as he walks over to the couch and takes a seat, "no. She's been with this guy for years. They're in love. I like him. He's a great guy."

Anyway, enough of that. I go over to the couch and take a seat next to him and immediately open my book.

Having to learn 20 images is not going to be easy.

"We only need to know the name of the painting, who painted it and the date it was painted, right?" Troy asks as he opens his notebook.

"I think so, yeah," I nod, not even looking at him, too distracted by my phone at the moment.

In the last five minutes that I've checked my phone, I've received 20 text messages. 19 were in a group text between my mom, dad, sister, brother and I, but the other one was from someone that I just want out of my life for good now. Yep, you guessed it... fucking Chris Matthews.

 _Again, I know this is weird, but please wish your sister a happy birthday for me._

What the fuck. First of all, my sister hates him as much as me right now so no, she won't appreciate that. Second of all, today isn't my sister's birthday. It's next week. So, uh, minus another ten points for getting that wrong.

Ugh. It's so weird how much I despise him now. When even after everything, I didn't hate him. I secretly wished we could have worked things out.

But now, it's just, I don't want to talk to him, I don't want to see him. I just don't want anything. Even though we didn't really have closure because I fucking screamed my head off and then he left and that was that, I still just don't think there's anything to talk about. He's still with that girl, he still did what he did to me and that's it. Case closed. I don't need or want Chris Matthews in my life. It's just too much for me.

"You okay?" I hear Troy ask me.

"Oh, yeah, yeah," I smile at him, put my phone down and open my notebook, "I'm fine."

He gives me this look like maybe he should ask again or ask what's wrong, but I think I'm doing a pretty goo job of hiding it. I don't want to talk about it. Especially to someone that doesn't know me very well. Plus, how obnoxious. Having to hear about some girl's ex boyfriend. Boring.

He shrugs it off and then pulls out the images he printed out and lays them on the table, "pick five we should start with."

"I think these," I pick up the Mona Lisa, The Sistine Chapel, David, The Starry Night and The Last Supper, "these are pretty big, don't you think?"

"Yeah, she'll for sure throw those in there," he agrees.

And then for the next thirty minutes, we went back on forth on memorizing it. It's so much easier when you have someone holding it up for you and squinting their eyes when you're about to get it wrong so you could really think about it and get it right instead. No one else would have patience for this, like Emily or Summer, so I'm glad I can study with someone from the class and knows what it's like and wants to study.

Within an hour, we were able to get these five and a couple more down like nothing. And it felt so good to be able to do that.

And I think we were done for the day. My brain could only take so much.

"I was gonna order a pizza if you wanna stick around for that," he tells me as he gets off the couch and goes to the kitchen, "if you're not busy..."

Oh. I'm not busy at all. And pizza does sound really good. But maybe I shouldn't. I know we're friends, I know he's friends with Cooper and Cooper like loves him and everything, but I don't know. I'm already crushing on him and it's not a good idea. I don't want to crush on anyone right now so maybe I should just leave. But ugh, pizza sounds good and I'm hungry.

So like an idiot, I agree. "Only if you can make half of it Hawaiian?"

"Better yet, I'll make it all," he smiles at me from the kitchen and picks up the menu from whatever pizza place he's ordering it from, "my favorite kind."

"Okay." I turn around and smile to myself and it's really for such a dumb reason. SAME PIZZA TOPPING? I mean, come on, so many people like Hawaiian. But maybe it's because I'm comparing it to people in my life. Chris? Hated it. Hated it so much. Cooper and Emily thinks it's weird. "Thanks."

He called the place and they said it would be here in about 20 minutes, so for those 20 minutes, we watched an episode of Seinfeld.

When the episode was over, Troy flipped through the channels to see what else was on.

"Is it weird being friends with Cooper considering how you two met?" I asked, because I was well... curious.

"It's not weird," he shakes his head, still flipping through the channels. I'm getting a sense he doesn't want to talk about it so I just tell him okay, but then he turns his body towards me and puts down the control. "Callie and I weren't really official. Like, we weren't seeing anyone else but it wasn't this serious thing. She's not too fond of me, but why should that stop us from hanging out? It's not like he has any loyalty to her. Plus, we never really cross paths."

"So you just never go over to their place? I mean, it's, like, Cooper doesn't even have his own apartment. He's always over there. Or over with us..."

He shakes his head, "yeah, no way, Callie hates me. And so he'll just come over if we want to watch a game or drink a beer."

Hmm. I'm curious about why she hates him. Should I ask? He obviously wouldn't bring that up if he cared too much about not telling people why? Right? That's my logic at least. "Why does she hate you?"

"Kind of broke things off abruptly," he shrugs, "yeah, it was fucked up. She didn't think anything was necessarily wrong, but I just wasn't feeling it. And she hated that answer. But I didn't know how else to tell her. I really just wasn't feeling it anymore."

"I think I'd be pissed, too," I spit out even though I shouldn't. He might not give me pizza anymore! "I mean, if I really liked the guy."

"Should I have let it go on for a couple more weeks and in that time, pull away slowly?"

Okay, I see where he's going with this. But I honestly can't speak on behalf of Callie. And I've never been in that position before. "You're right. If you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it. I'm just saying, I could imagine I'd hate you, too. Someone thinking everything's fine, and then they get broken up with."

Troy stayed quiet for a moment, but then a small smile appeared on his face. "It wasn't a cop out. I just couldn't see a future with her and I wasn't going to just keep hanging out for the sake of having some girl."

Oh. Wow. Did he just admit that he pretty much doesn't want some girl just for the action? He totally did, right?

"I get it," I give him a smile so he knows I'm not on Callie's side, "I know Callie can be a bit... dramatic. Did she try to hit you?"

"No, actually," he laughs, "we were in public when I told her."

I laughed and then sat back on the couch. "That was probably for the best."

Before he could say anything, his phone started ringing so he picked it up. I could see the caller ID. It was Cooper. Speak of the devil, right?

While Troy talked to him on the phone, I got up and went to use the restroom. I drank a whole iced tea before I got here and I'm surprised I haven't had to go. But now... I really, really do. So I made my way over, may have peeked my head inside one of the rooms, and then used it real quick before going back.

"What did he want?" I asked Troy as I sat back on the couch with him.

"Nothing, really. Him and some of the guys are gonna go watch the game at Porters."

"Oh, well, you can go with them. I'll take my pizza to go."

Troy shakes his head as he puts his phone back down on the coffee table. And then the doorbell rang. The pizza was here. Thank God. I'm SO hungry. But before he gets up to grab it, he turns to me and gives me a small smile. "Nah, I told him I was good here."

And just like that, this crush skyrocketed.

Why is this happening?!

* * *

"Are you okay?" Summer asks me as I'm laying on the couch under a blanket in the dark.

"I'm fine," I tell her, peeking my head out enough to see her take a seat on the sofa chair diagonal from me, "well, I'm not sure."

Summer rolls her eyes and I'm not sure if she knew I saw that, but I don't hate her for it. Of course she's going to think it's Chris related, but it's totally not. Not this time. And thank God for that. But I'm not sure if this is any better. Crushing on Troy Bolton.

She pretends like she never even rolled her eyes and gives me a small smile. "What's up? Is it something bad?"

"I'd say," I tell her, take a deep breath and then sit up. "I have a crush on someone."

"What?!" Summer's green eyes basically pop out of her head, "are you serious? Who? THIS is why you're laying in the dark on a Saturday morning?"

YES. This is why. I can't. I don't want a crush on someone. It's too soon right? Okay, it's been two months since Chris and I broke up, but we were together for two years. And also, who even knows how Troy feels. If he just sees a friend in me or anything. If he's even looking for a relationship. And I don't want to put myself out there for more disappointment. No way. Rejection sucks.

I throw my head back and groan in frustration. "Troy."

"Troy?" Summer repeats. "Wait. Is he Cooper's friend? The guy that was at his party?"

"Yes," I look at her, "that's him. He's in my Art History class and so, we've become friends and a few days ago, I realized for sure I have a crush on him."

Summer stayed quiet for a moment, I think trying to understand the dilemma. Because who would complain about having a crush on someone as hot as him right? Well, I guess many since they'd all get rejected. I don't know what she's thinking actually. "Oh, wait, does he have a girlfriend?"

I shake my head, "no, he doesn't."

"Then what's the problem?" she gives me a weird look, "I don't understand."

"The problem!? The problem is I have a crush on him, he could not feel the same way and then I'm crushed again."

She rolls her eyes and gets up and comes over to sit at the end of the couch I'm on. "Oh, please, Gabriella. You like this guy that much that if he's not interested in you, you're going to be crushed? Seriously?"

Okay, I'm exaggerating. "No. I'm being dramatic. But I just don't think it's a good idea I'm crushing on him. It's been, like two months. And who even knows if he's interested. And I'm not sure I'm ready to put myself out there... to the possibility of it not working again. I guess that's what I mean."

"I hate Chris because before this, you went in it not giving a shit," she says, "if it didn't work out, it didn't work out. And now you have all these walls up."

"They have to be up," I point out to her, "I don't ever want to go through that again."

"Not every guy is the same, you know," she also points out, "I don't really know this guy, but if you're crushing on him, then he must be great. And plus, he's fucking hot. So just go with it. See what happens. Don't let what happened with Chris hold you back. You'll never meet your husband."

She's right. But still, it's scary. The thought of someone like Troy liking me or whatever is INSANE.

Because he could literally have any girl.

And Callie and I... we're so different. She's a beach babe. Long, blond hair, the bluest of eyes, tan and fit.

So honestly, if that's his type, then I'm out. But it's so hard. I see him in class and he's nice and funny. We walk together after and chat. The other day when we were eating pizza, we didn't even watch TV, we just talked the whole time. He can talk, I can talk and put those two together and it creates conversations for days. Honestly. I'm learning so much about him and I do like him. I think he's so attractive, but he's smart and nice and funny, too. SO fucking funny.

"Just go with it," Summer gets up, "you owe it to yourself."

Maybe she's right. Maybe I should just let this crush happen. Who cares, right?

Easier said than done, though.


	9. Chapter 9

"Where are you going?" I ask Cooper as he comes downstairs, looking like he's going somewhere.

"Gonna go grab a drink, watch the game, aren't you coming?"

Wait. What? I put down my ice cream and pause the TV for a minute. "What are you talking about? When do I ever go?"

He shrugs as he grabs his jacket hanging from the couch and puts it on. "No, yeah, I know you'd rather watch the game here than a crowded bar, but Troy asked if you were coming and I just figured you guys had talked about it in class today or something. I don't know. You're not?"

"Oh, um, no," I tell hm, confused as hell for a moment.

Troy asked Cooper if I as going to watch the basketball game with them? In a bar? With all the guys?

What in the world. Does this mean... no, it doesn't mean anything. It might have just been a simple, off handed question. He does know I love basketball and watch every single Laker game possible, so maybe that's why he asked? And it's recent that him and Cooper started hanging out so he doesn't know that Cooper watches the games with his buddies at the bar and I just watch at home with Emily sometimes. Used to be Chris. But whatever. That's irrelevant right now. But we didn't talk about it in class. We hardly talked in class today.

Right now, all I'm thinking about is how he asked for me.

"Okay," Cooper shrugs it off, "Julia's coming with me, though, she's craving some hot wings. So if you wanna tag along..."

"Ugh, it's so crowded at Porters all the time," I complain, "and it's so empty here!"

Cooper laughs as he sits on the arm of the couch and takes out his phone. "We're not going to Porters. We're going to this other place in La Jolla. We've been a couple times and they have really good hot wings, which is why Julia's coming along. You should come. Emily's going out with Tyler right now anyway."

True. They have date night or whatever. And then I'd be by myself.

"Okay," I give in, kind of wanting to see Troy anyway even though I saw him earlier today, "where's Julia?"

"Borrowing a jacket from Em," he shrugs and then gets up and goes to the bottom of the stairs, "Julia, let's go! Game starts in 30!"

And less than a minute later, Julia emerges at the top of the stairs in one of Emily's jackets looking all sorts of cute. It's a bar! But in her defense, she could be wearing sweatpants and I would still think she looks cute. She's just one of those girls who can pull off basically anything. It's honestly not fair at all.

Julia sees me getting my purse and squeals with excitement, "you're coming!? Good!"

"I guess so. I heard something about some amazing hot wings," I laugh, throwing my purse over my shoulder.

"SO GOOD, G, you'll love," she tells me.

And with that, we tell Emily bye and we're out the door.

* * *

I'm currently sitting at the end of this table, staring at Troy Bolton.

He's staring at the TV in front of him and he's on and off drinking his beer and he's just so hot.

I'm going to die when he glances over here and catches me staring, but so far, nothing. And so I'm just sitting here, munching on these fries and talking to Julia about life and shit while frequently looking up at him. It's just so hard to look away. His profile view is AMAZING.

We're at a square, long table and I'm sitting at the end, like the head of the table, Julia's next to me, diagonal, Cooper's next to her, Brody's next to him, and then it's Troy and two other friends next to him. And I have such a good view of him.

God, I have such a huge crush on him.

But no. I need to get that out. It can't be happening.

I don't even know why I'm here, actually. Cooper told me what Troy asked, about me coming, and it just made me think that he wanted me here, but we've barely talked. We've barely said anything to each other. He's so into the game. And he hasn't even looked my way. And I would know, obviously.

"I'm gonna go at halftime," I tell Julia, grabbing a fry and dipping it in ketchup, "it's so fucking loud in here."

"Well, I guess it's good you brought your own car," she tells me, "I just came for the wings."

"Do you wanna leave then?"

She shakes her head, though, "nah, we're going to my parents house after."

Oh, right, I forgot. Cooper's going to help them with something or something like that, I don't know. Which is why I brought my own car.

"So it's been a couple of weeks now," Julia starts telling me and I know exactly where she's going with this. Ughhhh. No. Why? Why right now? "This guy, Charlie, he's so nice and he's cute and I honestly think you'll have a really good time with him, Gabs. Just give him a chance. ONE date."

"Yeah, Gabriella, one date," Cooper turns to me with a laugh, "what's the worst that could happen?"

I know he's kidding. He thinks setting people up is weird and he never wants to be the middle man. So he's just playing along with it.

But I don't want to be set up. "No, I'm fine."

"Find your own date, then," she says, rather loudly, like she's pissed, but I know she's not. "You're going to have to start dating eventually. Why go through the trouble or finding someone when I have someone great for you already? Come on."

"Then you date him, Julia!" I get a little fed up, "I'm fine!"

The look on her face was priceless and then I heard a laugh. I looked up and it was Troy, who was FINALLY glancing over here.

Oh fuck. How embarrassing.

"Shut up," Julia says, "I just think now's the perfect time to see what's out there. You're not as busy..."

"Sorry," I say, because I do feel bad. I know she would never. I know she doesn't have feelings for anyone else besides Cooper but still, that wasn't a nice thing to say. I just don't want to be set up. It's just not my thing. "I love you for caring, but honestly, I'm fine, I don't want any help with this."

"Fine," she puts her hands up in defeat, "fine. I'm sorry, too. Matchmaking is just my skill."

Okay, fair enough. She set up two of her friends with their boyfriends and they're all happy so I'll give her that.

But it's just not for me.

And when it's finally halftime on the game, I'm so happy.

"Alright, guys, this was nice, but I have things to do," I get up, basically only telling Julia, Cooper and Brody since those are MY friends.

"Where are you going?" Brody asks me.

I'm not going anywhere. Actually, I'm going to stop by the store because I need groceries and it's on the way. But then I'm going to go home and lay on the couch and watch Netflix all night while I put off my homework. Sounds like a great time right? "Don't worry about it."

He gives me an annoyed look at Cooper barely cares, I think. Julia gives me a small smile and a wave and then I get up and head to the front.

But then I feel someone grab my shoulder from behind... Troy.

"Sorry," he says since he scared me a bit.

"Yeah? I asked him.

"Do you mind giving me a ride?" he asks me, looking back at the table he just left, "my friends wanna stay the whole game and I kinda have things to do. If not, it's fine. If you're going somewhere else and..."

He was so cute when he rambled. Honestly. The cutest. "Oh, no, it's fine. I'm stopping by the grocery store, though."

Troy laughed and nodded his head, "yeah, yeah, that's fine. Whatever you want."

So we walked out of there, I don't even think he told his friends goodbye and headed to my car.

This was weird. I never thought he'd be in my car. And I never thought we'd be hanging out... the two of us. Well, it's not really a hang out, I'm just giving him a ride home. But still, it's not school related and there's no Cooper here. So, it's kind of weird. But I don't mind, obviously. I don't mind at all.

"I know the guy Julia wants to set you up with," Troy starts conversation.

"What?" I glance over at him as I'm waiting for traffic to pass so I can turn onto the street.

He chuckles, "yeah, Charlie Wheeler. He's cool."

Okay. Um. Why is he bringing this up? Obviously, he heard the conversation we had. Julia was loud as fuck and I kind of screamed the last part so yeah, obviously, he heard. But I just don't get why he needs to tell me this. "Yeah, no, I'm not really interested."

"You don't do set ups?"

"Something like that," I shrug as I turn on the street.

"Well, that's good, I guess," he says, "Charlie's nice and all, but he's boring as fuck."

I chuckled. I don't know if I can trust his judgement because I don't know him all that well, but that is something Julia would definitely overlook or not think about. She just cares if someone's a nice, god person and that's all when she wants to set up people. "Yeah, I can't do boring."

Troy laughed and didn't really such much else, just went on his phone during this two minute ride to the grocery store that wasn't far from the bar.

When we got there, I thought he'd just wait in the car or something because I only needed a couple of things.

But nope. He got out.

And he grabbed a cart and offered to help.

"No," I shake my head, "just grab a basket because I'm gonna end up shopping more with that."

"I'm not in a hurry," he shrugs, "if you need to shop, go ahead and shop."

Well, I was going to, but the second I knew he was coming, I decided to just get the things I would need tonight because I didn't actually want to make him grocery shop or keep him away from whatever he needed to do. But if he says he doesn't mind, then whatever, I'm taking him up on that.

Because I need fruits. And I need veggies. And chicken. And lots of nutella and chips.

So here we are, Troy and I, walking through this grocery store together and it's so fucking random and weird.

"This way," I motion to him, "I need some chicken."

"Do you cook a lot?'

"I try, yeah. My friend, and roommate is the one who cooks more."

We come upon the chicken and I grab a pack of chicken breasts and also some ground turkey because we love making turkey burgers. I see what other kind of meat I need or might want and when I don't find anything else, I move onto the baking aisle to grab the nutella that is for sure there.

And when I pack the cart with two bottles, it earns a small laugh from Troy.

"What?" I turn around with a smile, "you've never heard of a girl eating a whole bottle of nutella?"

"It's so cliche," he laughs.

"True," I pull the cart away from him so I can push it, "but it's so good. With fruit, on toast, with crepes. Oh my gosh, nutella crepes, the best thing, ever."

He shrugged and looked unimpressed. "Never had them."

What the fuck. He's never had nutella crepes? Is he... kidding me? I feel like that's the only way to have them or else they're too sweet. "Are you serious? You've never had nutella crepes? Or you haven't had crepes in general?"

If he hasn't had crepes in general, it's different, it's excusable. But if he has, then oh my gosh. What's he waiting for?

"I've had crepes, a breakfast crepe with like spinach and eggs and one in France. Really good."

"Oh, well you're excused because in France it's the real deal," I feel kinda silly now fawning over nutella crepes ha, "but seriously, nutella ones are the best."

"I'll have to try one then."

I don't really know how to respond to that immediately because it seems like it might have been said in a way where he wants me to make him one, but it very well could not be and he'll make them on his own. Or get them somewhere, I don't know. I'm being weird about this whole thing.

God, he's just so hot. And this is so random that he's here with me.

But it's kinda... nice. He's cool. And I mean, we do have a class together so why not be friends?

"What else do you need?" he asks me.

"Oh," I snap out of my thoughts, "unhealthy shit. Chips, things to make guac, sour cream. Cereal. Milk. Orange juice."

He laughs, but doesn't look turned off by it so that's good. "Lead the way."

So I did.

What a weird afternoon.


	10. Chapter 10

I have such a fucking crush on Troy and it's SO annoying.

It's the last thing I thought would happen to be honest, but it doesn't help that we have class together. And the we're studying.

He's currently over at my place and we're scattered around the living room desperately trying to learn these art images for our test coming up and we have most of them down, but some dates and places are tricky and it's so fucking hard, ugh. All I really want to do is lean over and kiss him or something.

"Okay," he says holding up a picture, "who painted this one and when?"

Fuuuck. "Um, Donatello, 1917."

He looked at the back of it to see the date and then gave me a smile. "Yeah, good job, I think you're going to ace it."

"Well, you are, too!" I tell him even though he is having a little harder of a time than me but I think he'll get it come test day, it'll just come to him. I hope so, anyway. I wouldn't want to get a better grade than him when we both studied the same thing, the same way. "Can we take a break?"

"Sure," he laughs, putting the stack of pictures down.

"I'm hungry," I say, getting up, slipping on my sandals, "do you want anything?"

He got up and followed me to the kitchen where I was headed. I have so many things since I went grocery shopping. I kind of went overboard, but it's better having a lot of things here than having to go out and grab food whenever you're hungry, right?

I opened the fridge and looked at everything I had. I could literally whip up turkey burgers, regular burgers, or a sandwich.

"Oh!" I say, grabbing the whip cream out of the fridge and then turning around to face Troy, "crepes. Nutella crepes. I'll make you one!"

"What?" he says, "oh, you don't have to."

"It's honestly not that hard," I close the fridge and put the whip cream down, "it'll take like less than 20 minutes."

He didn't fight it. Instead, he asked if he could help with anything, but nope. I made crepes so often I have this routine down. So he sat around the counter and sort of just watched me while he went on his phone.

I went over to the fridge and took out everything I needed from there. Butter, eggs, milk and strawberries. And then I grabbed the flour and the powdered sugar from the cabinet we keep it in. I laid everything out on the counter and then grabbed a bowl to put everything in.

But before that, I washed the strawberries and cut them up to fill the crepes.

"You're doing everything so fast."

"I've been making crepes for years," I look over my shoulder at him, "I can do it with my eyes closed."

He laughs a bit and then just looks down at his phone again.

And then I throw everything together in the bowl before grabbing a pan from the cabinet by the oven and put it on the stove, drizzling olive oil inside. I don't turn on the stove just yet, though, because the batter isn't mixed yet. So after that, I go back to the batter and throw everything together. I then melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the oven before mixing it in the batter as well. I grab my electric mixer and mix everything as smooth as I possibly can.

I bring the bowl of batter over to the stove and turn the heat up to medium and let it get hot for a minute.

While it's doing that, I grab two plates from the cabinet and a couple forks from the drawer and set them off to the side of the stove.

"Are you seriously making them already?"

"What?" I turn around, a spatula now in my hand, "yeah, they're ready to make."

"Wow, impressive."

I just give him a small smile and turn around to continue making them. You don't want to put too much batter in the pan because crepes are supposed to be really thing and if they're thick, it doesn't really taste as good. So I fill the pan with half and then move it around so it covers the whole thing and I let one side sit there for a little less than a minute before flipping it over.

And in less than two minutes, it's done.

I bring it over to the counter and spread some nutella on it and fill it up with strawberries and then grab a banana and cut some pieces in there.

"And then you just cover it up and eat it?" Troy asks as he's watching me move the strawberries and bananas around.

"Pretty much," I make sure everything's in the center of this thing so I can fold it up perfectly. "And then you fold it... like this. Add some more nutella on top, a little bit of strawberries and bananas, some powered sugar... wait, do you like whipped cream?"

"Love whip cream," he nods.

So I put it on both ends of the crepe for him. "And voila."

He grabs the plate from me as I'm handing it to him and he looks a bit impressed. They're SO easy to make, though. "Wow, this looks really good."

"Try it!"

"No, make yours. I'll wait for you."

Oh... okay. Well, that's sweet, I guess. I really want one now, so I hurry up and make mine so he doesn't have to wait much longer to eat his. And after I'm done with mine, I take a seat next to him on one of the stools and we both look at each other and exchanges smiles.

"Um, okay, this is so good," he tells me as he's getting ready to grab his second bite, "seriously."

"They're so easy to make," I tell him, "I'll give you the recipe."

"Thank you."

I just smile at him. And think about how weird this is.

This is so fucking weird that he's in my house and I'm making him crepes. But I don't think I really hate it. I think I like it.

I like hanging out with him. He's nice. He's funny. He's helpful... with the homework.

AND FUCKING HOT.

* * *

"I think I really liked that one," Summer tells me, pulling out of the parking spot we're in, "did you?"

"Yeah, I loved it," I buckle up, "I really did."

It's in a nice neighborhood, Westwood, so it's a little pricey, but I think we can afford it. And we'd feel safe there because this building has security. I don't know, obviously, we're going to keep looking, but I really loved this place. It's close to the heart of Los Angeles and close my parents house so it's perfect.

Summer put her car in drive and glanced over at me, "I want it."

I laugh, "yeah?"

"I think so. I really, really liked it and I don't want to see another one and really like that one and be completely torn, you know?"

"You're right," I agree with her. I would hate to be completely torn between two places and have to go back and forth, and maybe regret my decision later on or something. "Okay, yeah, let's just get this place. I love the area, it's nice, it's clean..."

"Okay, yay!" She claps, taking her hands off the wheel for a second and then chuckles, gripping it, "sorry."

Summer is not a bad driver... but in San Diego. In LA, it's, like, you have to constantly be on guard and watching the road at all times. So much traffic.

But she drove us up here so she's driving us around today.

"Well, since you're going to be living here, let me give you a taste of all the great things you can have," I tell her, "turn right at the next light. I'm taking you to Casa Vega, one of the best Mexican restaurants in all of LA. You're going to love it. And then we're getting Sprinkles."

"Oh my gosh, Sprinkles," she gets all excited, "Kate and I once drove to Orange County just go get some of their ice cream, isn't that insane?"

I laugh. It is a bit insane. "Well, now it'll only be a ten minute car ride. Or less."

She looks excited about it.

I'm so excited she's going to be living in LA with me. Over the years, she's come home with me. Two years ago, I celebrated my birthday in LA and she came with me and Emily and I spent the whole weekend taking her to our favorite places. And throughout the years, she'd come here and there for a couple days so she knows a bit about LA, but living in it is going to be a whole different story and I'm so excited. I'm sure she's a bit nervous, but she has me and she has my family, who loves her, and she's going to be fine.

Thirty minutes later, we're seated in a booth at Casa Vega munching on the chips and salsa.

"God, these chips are SO good," she grabs another one, drenching it in the delicious hot sauce, "I love this place already."

"Good," I laugh, "it's mine and Emily's favorite. We would come almost every Friday after school, before a football game or whatever we had going on that day. The enchiladas are to die for. And so are their tacos. Oh my gosh..."

"I'll get the tacos," she says, "you know I'm always down for tacos, they're my fave."

True. This girl lives for Mexican food, which I'm so happy about because I do, too, and she's always down to get some with me, whenever.

Our waitress comes and brings us our drinks and takes our order and then tells us it'll be out in a bit.

"So, how's Troy?"

"Sum," I roll my eyes as I grab another chip.

"What?" she acts all defensive, "can't I ask my best friend how the guy she's crushing on is doing? I mean, you guys have been hanging out, haven't you?"

Yeah, but for like school. Okay, maybe we made crepes and watched TV together much longer than we spent doing homework, but whatever. The less I talk about this crush, the better. I just really wanna stress about it too much and be disappointed or anything like that.

I think I do like Troy, but I don't think I'm ready to put myself out there.

"Sure, but it's for school," I shrug, grabbing my coke and taking a sip, "very platonic."

"Maybe he's just waiting a little bit to ask you out, giving it some time since he knows you went through a bad break up or whatever."

"Uh, yeah, I don't think that's it," I laugh, thankful she's trying to be supportive and positive, "guys don't care about that. It's fine. I'm crushing on him, he's probably not crushing back, it's fine, maybe it's better that way because I definitely don't need to be in a relationship right now. Too fucking stressful."

Summer shrugged, grabbing some more chips, "whatever. If you like this guy and he's not making a move, though, you make it."

Whaaaat? Does she not know me? "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"True," she laughs, "maybe the best way to get over someone is to meet someone else and develop a connection with them so you can realize that there is life after Chris and having feelings for someone else could happen, you know? It wouldn't hurt."

"It wouldn't," I agree with her, "just don't think I'm ready to put myself out there... with anyone, not just Troy."

"Do you think he likes you?"

Do I think Troy likes me? Hmm, that's a tough question.

But I have thought about it, to be honest. "There are times where I think, maybe he might be leaving the bar and asking for a ride home or whatever. Asking Cooper if I was gonna go watch the game. But then he hasn't asked me out and we see each other in class, we've studied and hung out. And I know he's not shy, so that's probably not the problem. I don't know, he hasn't asked me out... so."

"He's obviously interested if he left the bar early where he was watching a game to get a ride home with you," Summer concludes.

"I don't wanna jump to conclusions," I shrug, "it's this weird thing. But God, I have such a fucking crush on him and it's so annoying, Sum."

"It's not going to be when he asks you out, trust me," she says, "it's going to happen sooner or later."

Maybe she's right.

But maybe she's dead wrong. Either way, the thought of it terrifies me. Going out with Troy in a romantic setting, it's kinda all I want, even though I don't even think I'm ready. I'm scared to get hurt again. I'm scared to go through that process and it's just all kind of scary to me. Ahh.

Troy Bolton is fucking hot, though, so if he does ask me out, I have to take advantage of it.

Right? Right. Because this crush is too real.


	11. Chapter 11

"Let's grab some frozen yogurt, my treat..."

"Don't you have class?"

Troy shrugged, waving it off like it didn't matter. "I'll get the notes from my friend."

Frozen yogurt does sound really good right now to be honest. I want some. And I want to hang out with him. It's this weird thing of wanting to hang out with him so bad, but knowing it's probably not such a great idea, you know? I go back and forth on it so much. But at this point, I don't think I care.

"Well, if you insist," I don't fight him on it, "do we meet there?"

"Yeah, we can, if you want," he shrugs, "or I could just drop you back here after so you could get your car."

"I parked by the library today, where'd you park?"

He looked at where we were standing and then thought about it for a moment. "By Otterson Hall. So, I'm closer. Let's go, I'll bring you back later."

So we did. We made our way to Otterson Hall. I had to go to the library this morning so I parked by it and then I was going to move my car next to the building I had my first class in, but I ran late, so I couldn't. I had to truck it across campus and right now, the last thing I want to do is walk all the way to my car when his is so much closer. So, him bringing me back later sounded like a much better idea.

Troy and I aced our tests. Not to brag, but I did a little better than him, but still, we both got A's and that studying really paid off.

But this isn't a date. Nope. It's the middle of the day. Sure, he said it was his treat, but it's definitely more of a celebratory know, for getting A's.

"I honestly didn't think I was going to get an A," he tells me as we take a seat outside the place.

"Me neither," I laugh.

"Guess we're just going to have to study together from now on."

FUCK. When he says things like that and does things like this- bring me to get frozen yogurt- I think, okay, maybe he is into me. But then again, he hasn't asked me out. That's the most for sure sign of someone being into you. So, I'm not going to assume unless he asks me out.

It does make me get butterflies in my stomach. Knowing he wants to study together. I like studying with him. It's efficient and fun, somehow.

"Do you like frozen yogurt more or ice cream?"

"I'm not sure," I tell him, "I eat frozen yogurt more, but ice cream... I mean, I grew up eating that. Every Sunday evening, starting when I was like 13 or something, right before high school, my dad would take me to get frozen yogurt, just the two of us and we did that every single week we could until I left for college. So, I'd probably pick this since it's kind of special to me as cheesy as that is."

"It's not cheesy," he chuckles, "dad and daughter time?"

I nod, "yeah, we were getting to that teenager age so he tried to get special one on one time with all of us. He'd grab frozen yogurt with me, he'd take my sister to grab a pizookie and my brother, it kind of changed all the time, but usually they just grabbed dinner."

A small smile appeared on his face and my God, he's so beautiful. "It's always important to connect with all your kids, my parents did that as well."

I know some things about his family. I knew he grew up Malibu.

MALIBU. LOS ANGELES.

Okay, it's not extremely close to where I grew up, Brentwood, but I mean, it's weird we're meeting in San Diego when we're both from LA County. Still, it could be a good thirty minute drive to Malibu where I'm from so it's not like we've crossed paths or anything even though I used to go to Malibu all the time during senior year because my friends and I all had cars at that point and we'd love to go to the beach there.

Anyway, he grew up in Malibu, he's the oldest of three just like me. A brother who's 20 and a sister who's a junior in high school, so 17 I think.

"Yeah, for sure," I give him a smile as I grab some more yogurt on my spoon.

"Do you like LA more than San Diego?"

"LA is home," I shrug, "there's a lot more to do there and stuff, but I do love San Diego. The thought of going to Santa Barbara or somewhere up north crossed my mind, but I'm so glad I came here. It's beautiful. There's no topping LA, I grew up there, all my family is there."

He nods, like he's agreeing with me, "for sure. San Diego is a beach city for sure, so it makes me feel at home."

I'm sure it does. Malibu is all beach. "Did you surf growing up?"

"Not really," he laughs, "I love the water, love the beach, I just didn't get into it. I played soccer, actually, so that occupied my time a lot."

"Soccer," I say and I don't even know why. I love the sport. I've never played or anything, but my brother did, is playing, and so I know about it. I'd go watch his games and stuff. "My brother plays so I've grown to love it. It's so fun to watch."

He smiles, scooping some more yogurt onto his spoon, "yeah, I miss it. But it wasn't something I wanted to do with my life."

Now's the perfect time to ask what he wants to do. I've always wondered. Even though I know he's majoring in marketing I can assume he wants work in a field like that, but who knows. "What do you want to do with your life?"

"I wanna be a marketing manager."

"Oh, cool, my uncle is one," I tell him, "I think he really likes it."

Troy laughs, "yeah, I'm sure it's stressful, but I'm into all of that. So, we'll see. What about you? What do you wanna do with your life?"

Oh. Now we're talking about me. We're getting a little deep here. I mean, it's not deep. Who cares if a random person knows what I wanna do with my life, but I'm just saying, we're getting to know each other. We have been getting to know each other. But the conversations we've had have been very surface level and they usually revolved around everyday things- school, shows, friends, funny stories, things like that.

"I'm back and forth," I tell him, "sometimes I wanna be a buyer for stores and other times, I wanna go into event planning."

"Buyer? What does that mean?"

"Like, you go to showrooms and see all the latest clothes designers have come out with and you pick and choose what would sell or be good for the store you're buying for," I explain, "I've always been interested in fashion and designers."

Troy gives me a small smile, probably not buying it since I wear so many yoga pants and plain t-shirts, but this is school. I don't need to dress up. Ha.

Either way, he doesn't knock me for it. "Well, that sounds good. And event planning? You like to plan things?"

"Since I was a little girl," I nod, "gives me such a rush."

"One of my mom's friend is in event planning and my siblings and I threw her a surprise party last year for her 50th and so we were involved in the process and I never realized how many things go into it if you're trying to go all out and stuff," he tells me, "it seems stressful, but really cool at the same time."

"Yeah, yeah, because you don't think about the little things, like drinks and napkins and all of that."

He nods, "exactly, yes."

This was nice. It was nice hanging out with him and not talk about Art History. I mean, we've doe that plenty of times but this setting is different- it's the middle of the day and we're grabbing frozen yogurt, we're talking about life. It's something I didn't think would happen and I'm not sure I like that it's actually happening because it's only making me like him more, but at this point, I don't think I ever care. I like talking to him and being around him.

So whatever, I'm going to let whatever happen, happen.

Even if it's nothing. I think being his friend is nice. He's just cool to be around.

And stare at, obviously. SO HOT.

* * *

"I'm thinking about cutting my hair," Julia grabs the end of her hair, "it's just so... blah."

"Like, chopping it off?"

"Oh, God, no," she shakes her head, "no, no, maybe just shoulder length. A long bob, maybe. No, shoulder length. Pixie cuts are horrible and it would never look good on me. But I feel like I've just had long hair for too long. I need a change or something. Do you think it'll look fine?"

To be honest, she could probably pull off a pixie cut.

But I'm so glad she's not going that route, because I hate pixie cuts.

"Honestly, J, anything will look fine on you," I laugh, grabbing my iced tea, "I think shoulder length hair would be really cute, you should do it."

"Yeah, I'll see, I have an appointment with my hair lady on Monday, so we'll see what she thinks."

I give her a smile and then check my phone because I haven't since the ten minutes we've been here. As usual, the only text I got was from my mom who's asking if I'm coming home this weekend for my aunt's birthday. And yes, yes I am. It's my aunt's 50th. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

And then all of a sudden, I feel Julia wave her hand in front of me so I look up.

"What?"

"Um, Chris just walked in."

Chris? Chris Matthews? My ex boyfriend? Fuuuuck.

Why is this happening to me right now? I knew I should have just laid in bed instead of getting ready and coming to lunch with Julia. The shopping afterward was enticing so I didn't say no. But now, I wish that I kinda did because I don't want to see Chris. Chris, who decided to text me three days ago and ask if he could have one of his sweatshirts back that I forgot to pack when I gave him all his shit back.

It was one of those texts where you knew he was just texting you with something as an excuse, but he actually wants to talk to you.

And for the first time, I felt absolutely nothing when I read the text.

I'm over Chris and over everything I thought we had together and I really, really just don't want to talk to him, look at him or have any sort of interaction with him today. Or ever, really. It's over and done with and we're never getting back together. Fuuck. I want to go home.

"He might not even see you," Julia tries to tell me, but yeah, right, he'll recognize me from the back.

"I hate you for bringing me here."

"Sorry, but what are the chances he's going to come over here and try..."

She stopped talking, her eyes widened a bit and I knew he was walking over here. Her face gave it all away and all I wanted to do was run out of this place. What could he possibly have to say to me? I finally gave him a little piece of mind over text the other day and just told him that I want nothing to do with him. And that yes, he could have his sweater back, but he has to stop texting me or asking our friends if I'm doing okay, if I'm fine.

I'M FINE.

"He's coming," Julia whispers.

And a moment later, our eyes meet. He's standing at our table, looking better than ever.

But it's still not enough for me to fall for his stupid Chris Matthews charm that he had over me for two years.

"This is definitely a sigh that we need to talk."

"Chris, I have nothing to say to you," I tell him, glancing over at Julia for a moment, who looks really uncomfortable, "we don't need closure."

"What do you mean we don't need closure?" he says, "we were together for two years. It's crazy that we haven't talked about anything other than a few texts her and there. Please, Brie, can we just talk about things? Five minutes?"

Hm maybe he's right. I can finally talk to him like an adult and make him feel stupid and give him a piece of my mind when I'm not yelling or throwing things.

I look at Julia and kinda can't believe what's happening right now.

But then I get up and he leads me out of this restaurant and we walk over to the bench that's outside.

"I'm sorry," he starts saying once it's just us, "for interrupting your lunch, taking you away from Julia... but most importantly, for everything I've put you through. I'm sorry. I was a complete idiot and I don't know what I was thinking, Gabs, because you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

No, Gabriella, don't buy into it. Don't say it's okay and be over it. No. He hurt you. Let him know that. And don't let him say shit like this to you because it's probably not true. It's not true if he hurt me like that.

I'm not going to be okay with this. "What do you want from me, Chris?"

"I just want you to forgive me," he says, "I'm sorry for being such an idiot, but I just.. I miss you. And lately, I've been thinking about you all the time."

"That's great," I couldn't help, but be sarcastic, "that is so great. I wish you would have thought about me when you were meeting other girls at parties and texting them and calling hem and hooking up with them. You should have been thinking about me because I was your girlfriend, but you weren't. And that's over with now. I don't want anything to do with you. You lied to me, you cheated on me, and I bet you're still with her..."

"I'm actually not still with her."

Oh. Well, I can't yell at him for that then. "That's why you're talking to me right now, huh?"

He shakes his head, "no, Gabriella, I'm talking to you right now because I want to. Because I miss you. Because I love you. Okay? I love you."

This is what I wanted when everything went down. I wanted him to fight for me, I wanted him to be apologetic and tell me he loves me and can't live without me and everything like that. But he didn't do that. He walked out after I yelled at him and went off to enjoy his winter break. He continued being with the girl he cheated on me with. He dated her. Regardless if it worked out or not, he picked her.

And now that he's not with her, he's trying to get back with me. Because that's the kind of guy he is. He needs someone in his life.

But I'm not going to be that person.

"I don't love you anymore," I tell him, "you hurt me so bad, Chris, and I can certainly forgive you, but I'm never going to forget. It wasn't a one time thing. You wanted her. You had her. You picked her. You don't care about anyone other than yourself and I wasted too much time on you and you're not the one for me. I deserve so much better. I deserve someone who wants me as much as I want them... or more..."

"I want you," he comes closer to me, "I'm so, so, so sorry. You don't understand how terrible I feel about everything. I wish I could take back everything."

"But you can't. And I don't want you to. It's better it happened now."

Chris shakes his head, like he can't believe he's not able to win me over. "Brie, we had something so great and I'm so sorry I was an idiot, okay? But you and I both know we had something great and it would be so dumb to throw it all away for a lapse in judgement, for me being stupid as fuck..."

No, I don't think we had something great. It couldn't have been so great if he stepped out.

And right now, I don't even feeling like crying.

That's how I know I'm over it. I'm over wanting him back. I'm over wondering what went wrong, what I could have done differently. I'm over it all. I just want him to stop talking to me, I want him to stop acknowledge that what he did- cheat and have a relationship with this girl- is just something I can't forgive and be done with me. Move on. And leave me alone and let me live my life and do my thing. That's what I want.

"You can't call me that anymore," I tell him, "and if we had something so great, you wouldn't have cheated. Point blank, so no we didn't. And I'm fine. I'm so fine right now. I'm... I'm moving on and I can't go backwards. I don't want to go backwards. So, please, just leave me alone."

"You're just going to forget about the two years that we had together?"

"Yes," I get ready to walk away from him, back into the restaurant with Julia, "because you did."

And with that, I left him there.

This was... this was I'm so glad it happened, actually. I'm glad he came into this restaurant and asked me to talk to him.

I'm free of Christopher Evan Matthews.


	12. Chapter 12

"Yeah, I just checked my e-mail, too."

"Wish she would have sent it last night," Troy tells me, looking around campus, like he can't believe he woke up for nothing.

Our professor literally sent an e-mail twenty minutes ago, twenty minutes before class is supposed to start, to tell us she's canceling class because she's sick. And we're happy, for sure, but we would have preferred if she would have told us early this morning or something.

Well, I guess it doesn't matter for me since I had class before this so I had to wake up anyway but for someone like Troy, where this is his first class of the day, I'm sure he would have wanted to know so he could have slept in.

"Yeah, I'd be annoyed if I were you," I tell him.

"No, you don't understand," he shakes his head, "my next class is also canceled. So, I seriously came to school for nothing today."

Oh wow. Yeah, I'd be pissed. He could have slept all day if he wanted to. "Oh man, that sucks."

He laughed, walking away from class with me. I was walking to the parking lot near the upper part of campus, though. I'm not sure where he parked, but we're sort of just walking now and he's telling me about how it's probably better it happened this way or else he would have laid in bed all day long.

"Did you park over here?"

"Yeah," he laughs, "no, I'm just following you wherever you go."

Oh God. I wish. Well, no, maybe that would be creepy. I don't know. "Just didn't know. Are you gonna go back to sleep?"

He shook his head, "nah, probably not. I'm dressed and everything. And I'm not really tired."

I didn't really say anything to that. Instead, I pick up my phone that's ringing because it's my mother and I'm not sure why she's calling since she knows I'm supposed to be in class right now, but I answer it anyway.

Turns out, she meant to call my sister, but decided to just let it ring and see if I would pick up. Haaa that's my mother for you.

But since I was walking with Troy to the parking lot, I didn't want to be totally rude, so I kept it short and told her I would see her this weekend.

"You're going home this weekend?"

"Oh, yeah," I tell him, "leaving tomorrow. It's my aunt's birthday."

Troy doesn't say anything, and when I glance over to look at him, it kind of looks like he's holding himself back from saying something. But then he stops walking, and kind of stands in front of me, stopping me from walking as well. "Do you wanna do something? Do you wanna go to Sea World?"

Wait. What? Did I hear correctly? "Sea World?"

"Yeah," he scratches the back of his head and gives a small laugh, "I don't know. I can get us in."

Is he... is he asking me out? I know it's during the day and everything so it could very well just be a hang out. But if he wants to go to Sea World and have fun, wouldn't he just ask friends? Friends he's known for much longer? I mean, I would. So is this more? Is there something more here? Oh my gosh. I don't know. I don't know what's happening. But I think I do want to hang out with him.

I just didn't think the first time we spent more than a few hours together, something date like, would be at Sea World.

But I'm down for it. "Sure. I haven't been there in a while."

"Yeah?" He wants to make sure, I think. "Are you free all day pretty much?"

"Free all day," I smile.

"Okay," he smiles back at me, "good."

And just like that, I actually think I just made my first date with Troy Bolton. Ahhhhh.

* * *

"Do you come to Sea World often?"

"Not often, but I've been enough to know my way around," Troy tells me.

Exactly why I asked. He seems to know his way around this place and is leading me to all these places so thought I'd ask. I have no idea how to get around this place myself. I've only been a handful of times since I've been living in San Diego. And I don't remember from being a kid.

We've been here for a few hours and you know what? I think I'm having the best time. A really, fun day.

The last time I came to Sea World was about a year ago when Emily won two free tickets from some thing and we decided to make a BFF day out of it. It was fun. She loves animals so she was more into it, but it was still fun. It was something to do.

"You should try the frozen lemonade," he tells me, coming to a stop at one of the stands they have around the park.

"Yeah? It's good?"

"Delicious," he smiles at me, "come on, it'll refresh you."

Well, okay, not gonna argue with that. I love lemonade and it is getting a little hot walking around everywhere so why not? I'm thirsty.

He orders two, one for me, one for him and then takes it upon himself to pay for it while I'm digging in my purse to grab my wallet for a five dollar bill.

"Hey, I could have paid for that."

"You were taking too long," he chuckles, handing me my lemonade. I think it's an excuse and I don't even care at this point because him buying me this sort of make it feel like a date. And I think that's something I want. "It's no problem."

"Thank you," I get a hold of it, giving him a smile.

And then I take my first sip and I'm so, so happy he made me get it. So good. SO refreshing.

There's something about Troy Bolton that is just so... great. I don't know. Maybe it's because he's easy to talk to. Maybe it's because he's kind to strangers, in the way he says thank you and interacts with them. Maybe it's because he's funny and he can take a joke, he has a good sense or humor and can laugh at most things. Maybe it's because he's fucking hot. Or maybe it's just because he's genuine. I don't know. He just seems like a good, solid guy. And it's kinda crazy to me how we're hanging out. I don't know if this could lead to anything, but I'm kinda picking up that it could. If he wanted to spend the day at Sea World randomly, I think he'd pick a better friend than me. So maybe he wants something. Maybe this is sort of a date...

All I really know is that I'm enjoying myself and I'm glad we're here.

"You like dogs?"

"I love dogs," I nod, "I have three at home."

"Let's go watch the dog show then," he points to the direction it's at, "it's cool. I think you'll like it. It has cats, too, but mostly dogs."

I've heard of this dog show, but I've never been. I forgot why we couldn't go last time but I was a bit bummed because I love dogs. Oh, maybe it coincided with a different show time, I'm not sure. All I know is that I'm down to watch it.

So, we make our way over to the show and it doesn't start for another 15 minutes and it's not that packed, seeing as it's a random, weekday.

We grab seats in the middle, two rows up and get situated.

"What kind of dogs do you have?"

"One's a rescue, so we don't really know what he is, but we're thinking jack russell terrier mixed with another terrier," I tell Troy, "the other two are labs. Black and yellow labs. They're all best friends." Aww, I get sad just thinking about them, to be honest.

"Do you think dogs think about another dog being their best friend?"

I laugh because I've seriously wondered about this. "Maybe. Maybe in a different way. But if someone is teasing my yellow lab, the black one comes to it's defense right away. Vice versa. It's cute."

Troy laughs, "I have a chocolate lab. They're the best dogs, although my German Shepherd is right up there with them."

"You have two dogs?"

"Mhm," he mumbles as he's taking a sip of his lemonade, "I'd have, like, ten if I could."

"Me, too, I think. It'd probably be a lot of work, but I love them so much." I tone it down a bit because I don't want to sound weird, but it's true. Not a day goes by where I don't think about my dogs at home and miss them. We rescued Jack 5 months before I moved out here, so I haven't gotten to bond the way I would have liked to but I still love him very much. "Are you a cat guy, too?"

Troy looks at me like I'm crazy. And then shakes his head. "Nah, I can't do cats. They're just... not for me."

I laugh, "yeah, I don't understand cats. I mean, I guess if you just want company, if you want someone there, but I feel like they can't be bothered."

"Yeah, I know. I guess it depends, but nah, I'm a dog guy."

Well, that's good, I guess. We talked a little more about our dogs and honestly, I could talk about my dogs all day and show him pictures, which i did, but that would probably be tiresome for some people. So, it only lasted a couple minutes before talking about something else.

And then the dog show came on and oh my gosh, it was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

"It's one of the smaller shows, but it's probably my favorite," Troy tells me as he's grabbing his phone from his pocket, "sorry."

"Oh, no, you can answer it."

"Nah, I'm with you. It's just my brother," he says, looking down at his phone, letting the call go to voicemail before putting it back in his pocket. He gives me a small smile and then looks around the park, "what do you wanna do next?"

Um. I can't even really concentrate on what I want to do next because what he just told me... it made me have serious butterflies. He's not answering a call from someone? His own brother? I mean, come on. A gentleman wouldn't answer a phone call on a date. If he's just hanging out with a friend, he would answer. So, this now feels even more date like to me. He didn't want to be rude. And the way he told me... like he was flirting with me or something.

And I think I can get on board with this.

"I think I want to watch the seal show, watch Shamu and then leave and grab some pizza."

"Yeah?" He looks a little taken aback, but on board. "Sounds good to me."

So that's what we do. We go to the seal show which is starting in 10 minutes. And the whole pizza thing... I kinda wanted to throw it out there that maybe I'm interested, too. And maybe I want to hang out. And maybe I'm considering this a date, too, or whatever. I wanna give him something.

And hopefully, maybe, this will go somewhere.

* * *

"Are you close to your siblings?"

"Yeah, really close," I tear off a piece of crust and throw it in my mouth, "we're all so close in age."

"They're both in college?" he asks, reaching for his drink.

I nod, wiping my mouth before taking a sip of my lemonade, "well, my sister will be this fall. She's graduating high school in June, but my brother is. He goes to UCLA so he stayed local. But yeah, two years apart from my brother, four years from my sister, so we're all pretty close."

Troy put his drink down and leaned back on the couch, turning his body towards me, "that's nice. It's the same with my siblings, I love it."

Yeah, I'm so glad my mom didn't wait years to have kids apart.

But this is nice. Troy and I... we're just chatting. At my house. While eating pizza together.

After leaving Sea World, and deciding where to get the pizza from, I suggested eating it at my place. He had to drop me off anyway, so why not? Emily was with Cooper and Julia so I knew she wasn't going to be home and it's barely 7. The night is still young and I wanna keep hanging out with him.

"So, you had a nice childhood, growing up with your siblings and everything?"

"Oh, the best," I smile thinking about it, "yeah, I wouldn't dream of having a different childhood. I mean, my parents were still together, are together, I had siblings, a yard to run around in, family, cousins, I grew up with. Yeah, it was the best. I can't complain."

"You've lived in LA your whole life?"

I nod, putting my drink down and bringing my feet up on the couch, "born and raised. What about you, how was your childhood?"

Troy gave me a small smile and threw his arm around the couch, "great. Yeah, I can't complain, either. My dad worked pretty hard, but he was still there at every single game regardless of what was going on. My mom, the school mom who would bring the brownies to class, go on the field trips. It was really nice, I wouldn't change it for the world. And of course, growing up with siblings was the best."

"Are you close with your parents, too?"

"My mom calls me every night and wants to talk about my day, things going on," he laughs, "yes, I'm close with them."

"Aww, that's sweet." It really is. Oh my gosh. How freaking adorable. The thought of him at home, laying in his bed, talking to his mom about his day is just so sweet. "Good thing there's no time difference."

He laughs, "yeah, exactly. I mean, it doesn't happen every night because sometimes we're both busy, but most nights, yeah. I don't mind it."

I wouldn't mind it, either. But my mom calls whenever she feels like it. Sometimes maybe 20 times a day. "Maybe I should make that a rule with my mom, like, let's schedule a time where you call me once a day, because I don't know if I could do her ten phone calls a day thing anymore."

"Yeah, she calls you that much?"

"Sometimes," I laugh, "she'll call and ask what I'm up to, how a test went, things like that. And sometimes, she'll call just because she can."

"She misses you," he shrugs, "but I get it. Mom's can be... you know."

Yeah, definitely. I laugh and agree and then get up to refill my lemonade. I ask if he wants anymore soda, but he says he's fine so I make my way to the kitchen and then kind of just catch my breath for a moment in there. Grab a minute to myself. And think about everything. About where this could possibly go tonight. I mean, we spent the day together and we're capping it off by having pizza at my place.

Is this night going to end in a kiss? I have no freaking idea.

Do I want it to? Maaaaaybe.

Okay, yes, maybe I do. I'm so back and forth on this thing. I want it and then I think I shouldn't. But then I do.

After I refill my cup, I head back out there, but stop for a moment and just kind of watch him. He's sitting on the sofa, in the exact same position he was, and is kind of just staring off into space. He's not on his phone. He's not grabbing another slice. He's just sitting there, looking like he's thinking.

I smile to myself for some unknown reason and then head back in there.

"Hey, thanks again for taking me," I set my cup down on the table, "I had a lot of fun."

"Oh, you're welcome," he smiles at me, "yeah, yeah, it was fun. It... it was just an idea I had, I'm not really sure why, but yeah, thanks for coming with."

And then there's this pause between us, neither of us are saying anything, we're kind of just looking at each other and it's this moment. I honestly have no idea what's coming to my mind, but I'm just thinking about how I think there is something here...

I feel something for him.

Whether it's this insane crush or real romantic feelings. I feel something for Troy Bolton and I hope he feels something for me.

"Did you play any sports growing up or in high school?"

"Yeah, I played tennis," I turn towards him a bit. I'm sure it's something that surprises him because he looks a little taken aback. "Started when I was maybe 10, I got the urge and yeah, played until the end of high school. Well, on teams. I still try to play as much as I can when I have time."

"I never would have expected that," he tells me with a small laugh.

I'm not offended or anything. I don't think I scream athletic or whatever. "Yeah, well..."

He shakes his head, "oh, no, nothing you give off. I just... I love tennis, I watch it on TV, but I don't know, I guess you don't really have the build for it."

Oh, definitely. No, I don't have a tennis players body. All their muscles showing from their calves to their arms. It just never came to me. "No, yeah, I've heard that before. But I did play pretty competitively, but yeah, just never developed that body style."

"You didn't wanna play in college?"

"Sometimes I did, but mainly just wanted to focus on my degree since I knew I didn't want to make a career out of tennis."

He nods like he gets it, and then excuses himself to use the bathroom.

And I just sit here for a minute and look at my phone since I didn't want to while he was here. We haven't called this a date, but it feels like one, so I didn't really want to go on my phone and be rude and look at my texts and social media sites.

So once he was out of sight, I looked at the texts I had. Two from my sister, one from my brother, a couple from Emily and Summer.

When Troy came back, I was by the entertainment system grabbing the remote control that controls the volume.

And he kind of joined me, looking around at the pictures I had framed around it and when his eyes landed on one, he picked it up and looked at it for a moment. "This is your sister, right?"

"Yeah, that's my sister," I smile, thinking about that day. Graduation day.

"You two look a lot alike," he says, putting it back, "and you still look the same... except prettier."

Oh my gosh.

Okay. This is for sure something. He's flirting with me. He's standing here, looking at me now, with a smile on my face, telling me I'm pretty. that I've gotten prettier. Holy fuck. Breathe, Gabriella, it's fine. You like this. You like what's happening here. Troy's beautiful, so why not? And he's nice. And smart. And fun to be around. This is the best case scenario and it's happening right now. He's... interested. Right? He's interested in me.

And boy, am I interested in him. I'm so interested.

"Thank you," is all that comes out of my mouth like an idiot.

He laughs a bit and then takes a step closer to me, "if I kiss you right now, I think this will officially be a date."

I don't even know what to say right now. I have butterflies all over my stomach, my heart is racing, and I think I have the most expressionless look on my face. But I just cannot help it. Everything is so... different. He's not being aggressive, he's basically giving me a heads up and I think, is kinda letting take the reigns on this and wants me to decide where I want it to go. Like, he's saying, if you let me kiss you, this will be something. I don't know.

Maybe I'm over thinking it. And he just said it to say it, to preface it or whatever.

But I think about it for a moment.

If this were to happen, it would be my first kiss with someone else in over two years. It'll be the start of something new, as cheesy as that is. It's opening a new chapter in my life. And it could very well lead nowhere, but it means I'm moving on and I'm ready to move on from my past relationship.

That's exactly what I want, I think. I'm ready. And Troy Bolton is exactly the person I want to kiss.

"It'll be the best first date I've ever been on," I tell him.

"Me, too," he whispers out and then takes a step closer to me.

And before I know it, he has his hand on my cheek and he's leaning in to kiss me.

Which turns out to be the best first kiss of my life.

I'm not even exaggerating. The second his lips touched mine, something inside of my went out. Sparks? I have no idea. I've never felt like this with someone during a first kiss. This sensation. This feeling of wanting more. This need of letting go and just being in the moment. It feels good. It feels so fucking good.

It was a simple first kiss. No tongue. No making out. Just a few kisses.

And when we pulled away, the first thing he said to me was, "I wanna do that again."

"Okay," I said with a smile.

"But maybe after I take you out on another date," he follows it up, "do you wanna go grab some ice cream right now?"

Wait. What? Is he serious right now?

Why does everything that come out of his mouth so perfect? It just feels so genuine. He wants to take me on another date, he wants to kiss me some more but thinks it's appropriate to do so after more dates. And right now, he just wants to hang out and grab some ice cream or something.

I want that, too. I really, really do. So I tell him yes.

And off we went, me with a stupid grin on my face, to get ice cream.

What a day.


	13. Chapter 13

"Gabriella, I'm talking to you!"

"What?" I look up from my phone at my sister, "sorry."

Arianna looked a little annoyed and then just shook her head and got up from the couch and grabbed the remote control from next to me.

Oh. That's what she wanted, probably. Oops. But I mean, can she really blame me? I'm sucked into a conversation with a new guy. she's encouraged me to go out and date and now I have. I am. I'm going to. So, she should be happy for me. Well, she would, but she doesn't know... yet.

"I'm talking to a guy."

"What?" her head almost snap, "seriously?"

"Yeah," I lock my phone and put it on the side of me, "that's why I'm so sucked into this thing. It's new."

Arianna turned off the TV, jumped off the couch she was sitting on and came over to the one I was on. "I need to know everything, Gabs. Right now."

I laugh. She was way too close right now, but I don't blame her. If she had a new boyfriend, I'd want to know everything, too. It's just the kind of sisters we are. But this is fairly new so there's not much to tell, to be honest. I mean, we went on one date and then I left San Diego so really, we've only talked through text. We made plans to grab dinner when I come back Sunday evening, so there's that.

"We went on one date," I tell her, "but I've known him since the semester started. He's in my Art History class and friends with Cooper."

"And why have you never mentioned him before?"

"Because, I don't know. I wasn't looking for anything. I didn't want anything," I shrug, "but getting to know him in class, seeing him around, God, he's so hot, Ari. And he's so easy to talk to. And he was interested? I don't know, it just happened."

She looked really giddy over this whole thing, just how I thought she'd be. "Do you have a picture? Please tell me you do."

Unfortunately, I don't. "No."

But then I remembered Cooper put up a picture of them, along with some friends at a party a few weekends go. And you could definitely tell how how he is from that picture. Actually, pictures don't really do him justice. But still, she could father how how he is.

"Actually, go to Cooper's instagram," I tell her, "they have a picture together."

"Okay," she grabs her phone to look.

While she does that, I get up and go use the restroom really quick. I'm all for sharing things with my sister, but it's that thing where I don't know if I want to talk about it yet and jinx myself, you know? It's new. It's early. And I just really want to see if this could actually go anywhere and I don't want to mess it up or anything like that. Or come back in a few weeks and tell her, oh hey, never mind about that guy, it's all over with.

When I come back, she's on his instagram waiting for me to confirm which guy it is.

"That one," I point him out, smiling. I couldn't help it.

"Oh my God," she says, bringing the phone closer to her, turning her brightness up to get a better look, "Gabs, this guy is fucking hot."

I laugh. "Out of my league, I know."

Arianna shakes her head and turns to me, "no, no, no way. Absolutely not. I just... no, you guys would look great together. You're hot, he's hot. He's just sort of the opposite of what Chris was. I mean, I don't know this guy, but looks wise or whatever."

Yeah, Chris is attractive, but it's different. So different. And I know it's crazy someone like Troy is into me, I'm not letting that slip my mind at all.

"So, you like this guy?"

"I think so, yeah," I tell her, grabbing my phone, "he's fun to be around."

"What do you mean, fun?" she asks, "like what have you guys done? I need to know details, Gabriella!"

Of course she does. But whatever, she's my sister. She has a right to know. And since she can't be with me in San Diego everyday, I owe her an answer to every question she has. "I just mean, it's easy. It's easy to hang out with him. We laugh, we talk, we laugh some more. Like, our first date or whatever, we went to Sea World. it was random, it was out of the blue, and I'm not sure it was a date at first, but then it turned into one and it was the best day I've ever had I think. I just had so much fun. And one day we were studying, we took a break and I made us crepes... like even that was fun."

Arianna smiled, like she was soaking this all in. "Wow, you made him your famous crepes? You must be into this guy."

"It's not even hard work," I argued.

"I know," she laughs, "I'm so excited for you. Can I meet him?"

"If you come to San Diego, sure," I tell her, "otherwise, it'd be weird. What business do I have bringing him home when he's not my boyfriend?"

Arianna shrugged, "I don't know. You're right. I actually was planning on coming down in a couple weeks. Get out of LA for a weekend. Maybe I'll bring Megan or something. Make it a little girl's weekend. And I can meet your new boy toy."

Ew, I feel weird hearing her call him that, but it's just a saying. "Yeah, that'll be fun. Do you think..."

I stopped midway because my phone was ringing.

It was Troy.

"Who is it?" Ari gives me a weird look.

"Umm, Troy," I look down at my phone that's still ringing. It's weird. He's never called me before. Ever. And we're currently texting. Well, I haven't replied to his latest text but we're texting. Very simple stuff, but still. And I have no idea what he could possibly be calling for. "Wait. Let me get this.

Arianna just gave me a smile and then I got up and exited the living room. I picked up before it went to voice mail and made my way to my front porch.

And hearing his voice on the other line kind of gave me butterflies.

"No, I'm not busy," I tell him, "just hanging out with my sister. Why, what's up?"

"Oh, I don't know," Troy tells me, "I was just... I mean, I know we were talking about going to dinner in our texts right now, but I just wanted to know if you're... if you're over your ex completely. It was just something that came to mind right now so I thought I'd call instead of saying it over text."

"Am I over my ex?"

I'm not sure why I asked that, but it just came out.

This whole phone call, what he asked in the phone call caught me by surprise. I am over him, though.

"Yeah," he says, "I was just sort of thinking... I mean, I don't wanna take you out to dinner, we have a good time, I'm over here thinking about our next date or whatever and you get home and you're thinking about your ex and how you guys used to go to dinner and all that. It's okay if you're not, I know you guys were together a while and it ended abruptly, but you know, if that's the case then maybe..."

"I'm over him," I spit out, not wanting him to continue. I don't want him to say, then maybe this isn't going to work out. Because all of a sudden, I want it to work out more than ever. "Yeah, no, we got closure and there's nothing there. And I don't think... no, you have nothing to worry about."

Is this serously happening right now?

What guy does this? What guy puts their feelings out there like that?

He basically told me when we leave dinner, he's going to go home and think about our next date and he wants me to think about that, too, not my ex. Oh my gosh. Who says this? Maybe guys think like that, but their egos and pride get in the way of ever admitting to it.

And this just made me like Troy even more.

"Okay," he says, "well, good. Because I like hanging out with you."

"Me, too," I say.

And then for the next five minutes, he asks what I'm doing today and I ask what he's doing and then we say bye to each other and I'm left there with a big ole smile on my face. I'm excited again. I'm excited to see where this could go. And I'm hopeful.

But I'm not naive and I'm not thinking that nothing bad could happen or anything like that. I've learned my lesson- big time.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

Still, though, I'm excited about Troy and I.

* * *

"How have you never been here?" Troy asks me as he breaks apart his chopsticks.

"I don't know," I look around the place, "I just never have."

He shakes his head a bit and then grabs my chopsticks and breaks them apart, too, since I told him I can never break mine apart right.

I got home from LA about an hour ago. I changed from sweatpants and a sweater to some jeans and a blouse and then Troy picked me up and asked if it was okay we got sushi. I was more than okay with it. I love sushi. I'm always down for some sushi. Except, I've never been here. And that worries me a bit.

"It's the best sushi in all of San Diego, you're going to love it, I promise."

"I hope, because I have a usual sushi place and I never stray away," I tell him, grabbing the sticks from him, "thanks."

"In LA or here?"

Both. But I was referring to here. "Well, in LA, there's a couple, but here, I only ever go to Shiku."

He nods, like he approves. "Yeah, Shiku's good. But this place... well, I hope you like it."

I'm picky with my sushi, but I think I trust his judgement. I don't know. It's a weird thing. I think I'll like it. If not, I'll definitely lie because it seems like this is his go to place. But wait. What if he wants to keep bringing me? Okay, I won't lie. I'll have to tell him the truth.

"How was going home?"

"Good. It's always ice going home," I grab some edamame from the center of the table, "do you go home to Malibu often?"

"The first two years, I only went back during holidays. Maybe a weekend here and there. It's actually not that far, but if you have things to do, it seems so far," he tells me, "but the last two years, I've been going home more. The longer you're out here, the more you miss your family, so yeah..."

I don't necessarily want to meet his family, or am thinking about meeting his family, but I do wonder about them.

He's told me he's close to his mom and it'd be so cute to see that.

And I also wonder about his brother, because I'm a typical girl and I wanna know if he's just as hot as Troy or maybe even hotter. Who knows.

"Yeah, same here. I'm been going home a lot more lately which is probably not good, it's my last year," I laugh, "I should focus on everything here. But you can do work anywhere, I guess. That's what I'm telling myself when I wanna go home."

"Exactly, yeah," he nods, "just being around your family feels good. I'm actually going home in a few weeks for my sister's birthday."

"Oh, how old is she turning? 18?"

Troy laughs, "yeah, 18. She's pretty excited."

Yeah, I'd think so. I was pretty excited about turning 18. It's nothing magical, though. "As everyone is."

"I know," he says, reaching for some edamame, "yeah, she's having a low key dinner on her actual birthday, Friday, with just the family and then this big party at the house on Saturday, my parents are okay with it, but they're going out of town so they need me to chaperone, being over 21 and all."

"You're gonna chaperone?" I ask, even though it's just what he said, "are you going to be a cool one or one of those that's like, hey, no, give me your keys, you're not driving home. Is that weed? Give it to me, you can't do that here."

Troy laughed, grabbing his iced tea, "I'd like to think I'm cool, but I don't think I'd want anyone smoking weed in my house or driving home drunk."

I laugh. "These girls were over once, about to light some cigarettes, it was a party my brother was throwing, and I told them that if they were going to do that, they needed to leave and they just didn't listen. They didn't care what I had to say."

"Yeah, well, those are teenagers for ya... it'll probably be an annoying night, having to deal with everyone."

"They'll listen to you," I tell him, "you're hot. These 18 year old girls are going to take one look at you and will probably be so mesmerized."

Troy smiled, looking like he couldn't believe what I just said.

But I'm actually not a shy person. I can flirt. I'm all about flirting. And now that I know there's something here between us, I'm way more open about it, about knowing that I think he's fucking hot.

"I'll probably just hide upstairs," he laughs, "my sister's pretty responsible."

"Well, that's good."

He nods and then changes the subject, "we should probably start studying for our next test."

I didn't mind this school talk. I mean, sure, we're on a date, but it's part of life. And he's right. We should. I don't wanna have to cram all the images in and fail. We did so well on our first test, we have to do that again. "Whenever you want to start, I'm ready."

"Tonight," he says, grabbing his drink again.

"Oh," it's not really what I meant and I'm not ready. Well, I am ready, I just don't really wanna study tonight. I'm tired. "um, yeah..."

"Kidding," Troy smiles, "sometime this week is fine, you can come over."

I smile, just nodding.

This is actually happening between us. Us dating.

Ahhhh.


	14. Chapter 14

"Oh hey, didn't know you were coming over."

Julia looks up at me and gives me a dirty look. "Nope, don't talk to me, I'm mad at you."

What? Cooper then emerges from the kitchen, carrying a bowl of chips and he looks a little upset at me, too. What is going on here?

"I don't know what I could have done," I tell her, putting the mail down on the coffee table, "I just saw you yesterday."

"Yeah, and you had the whole night to tell us that you're dating Troy Bolton!" she exclaims, throwing her hands in the air all dramatic. "Gabs! You're dating someone and you didn't tell us. You didn't tell Cooper! What the heck!"

Okay, I can see why they're upset, but it's just... it was something I wanted to make sure was going in the right direction before getting them involved.

I mean, Cooper and Troy are friends. I basically started hanging out with Troy because of Cooper. And none of this would have happened if Julia and Cooper weren't together, because he dated Callie. I just didn't want to say anything and then a week later, have to say, oh never mind, it didn't work out.

But now that it's been a few weeks of hanging out, I think it's safe to say it's going somewhere.

"Sorry," I go over to the couch she's sitting on, "it wasn't something I was intentionally keeping, but I just wanted to see if it was going anywhere first because Cooper and him are friends, you'll want to start double dating..."

"Hey, that's not true," she says.

But even Cooper, who has her back one hundred percent all the time, knows it is. "Okay, I can see your point, but we're your best friends."

Cooper's right. They are my best friends. And I should have let them know just like I let Emily and Summer know. "I honestly just wanted to see if it was going somewhere first. If it was worth mentioning and stuff. And it's at a point where it is. Were hanging out, we're having fun and it's going great."

"We saw you," Julia says, "a little while ago at the mall."

"Oh," I say, feeling bad. We were there, I had to grab something, and he came along. "I'm surprised you didn't come up to us."

"I wanted to, but Cooper didn't let me. We were in the car, you were crossing the street. Hand in hand."

Yeah, that sounds right. Because we did. "Are you guys seriously mad?"

Cooper chomped down on his chips while Julia turned to me and shook her head. "I'm not mad. I'm just kidding. I would have liked to know. It's great you found someone, though. And Troy's a great guy. I can't believe I didn't think about hooking you up with him. I guess because the whole Callie thing..."

"Yeah, too close for comfort."

"Exactly," she nodded, "but I'm happy for you. And I hope things are going great."

"They are," I smile at her and then look at Cooper, who I think was just going along with Julia and he doesn't actually care that I didn't tell him. "We're going to LA this weekend. I'm not meeting his parents, but I'm meeting his sister and that's a step in the right direction."

Julia looked way too excited for it. "You're moving on. I'm so happy about that. You deserve it."

Cooper puts his chips down on the table and grabs the remote, "yeah, but if anything happens, I'm still hanging out with him."

"That's fine," I laugh, "he was your friend first."

"Can't believe he didn't tell me either, though," he shakes his head, "what kind of friends are you that keep something like that from us?"

We talked about it once. I asked him if he told Cooper anything and he said no and when I said no, too, we kind of just figured it was too soon to call us anything so why would we say anything to anyone else? If they found out, they found out, but we didn't want to say anything about it just yet.

But now it's out there and actually, I feel a bit relieved, to be honest.

"Sorry," I apologize again.

"He's a great guy, though, so I don't blame you," he shrugs, grabbing his chips again.

He is a great guy. And I'm really happy with everything.

Happier than I thought I'd be at this point.

* * *

"Hi," Troy leans in and kisses me, "did you find it alright?"

"Yeah," I smile at him, stepping foot into his house for the first time, "yeah, it was easy to find."

Troy and I drove to LA this weekend together where he dropped me off at home Friday morning and then went off to Malibu to be with his family. He asked me if I wanted to maybe come and chaperone with him and I thought, why not? I get to spend a couple days with my family, a night with a guy I like. So yeah, I tagged along. But I wasn't going to meet his mom and dad yet. They're out of town and it's better this way. He didn't meet mine when he dropped me off. I just feel like it's a little too soon for our situation. Me dating someone away from my parents. If he was from LA, he probably would have met them when he was picking me up for dates and stuff, but he's not, so I'm putting it off for a little bit. I have to make sure it's serious.

He lived in a beautiful Malibu home that was two stories and big and grand and it was just so nice. Beautiful.

"Good," he closes the door behind me.

And before he could even say anything else, a girl emerged from the back and came right up to us. "Hi! Gabriella, right? It's so nice to meet you!"

I looked at Troy who was now standing on the side of her, putting his hands on her shoulder, "This is my sister, Riley."

"Yeah, hi," I smile at her, knowing it was. I've seen pictures and they have the same bright blue eyes.

"You're pretty," she tells me. Not like she's surprised, but just like she wants to give me a compliment. And it's nice coming from her. She's gorgeous and she's the sister of a guy I like. Obviously it feels good. "Do you want something to eat or drink? There's plenty in the kitchen."

"Oh," she's getting right to it. "Um, I'm fine right now."

And then Troy stepped in, "Ri, calm down. Go with all your friends."

She rolled her eyes, "I'll talk to you later, Gabriella, I wanna know more about you! But you're right, I need to get back to my guests."

Riley left the room and Troy just laughed at her. He took me to the back where the kitchen was and there was food there, but it looked like only for some people. All the drinks were outside, though. Everything was pretty much outside.

"Do you want something to drink?"

"No, I'm okay," I tell Troy as I take off my jacket and look outside, "wow, there's a lot of people out there."

"I know," he joins me in looking outside, "which is why they're not allowed to be in here. Obviously her closest friends and stuff, but other than that, if there's that many people, my parents prefer everyone outside. There's even a bathroom out there so there's no reason for them to come inside."

Yeah, I wouldn't want strangers in my home, either.

I'm still looking out as Troy's cleaning up the kitchen a bit, putting leftover pizza on a plate.

I catch a glimpse of Riley and my God, she's beautiful. She's laughing at something someone's saying. Oh, to be young again. I wish I was still eighteen and going to house parties and having fun without a care in the world. But being 22 is nice, too. I look back at Troy and he's rinsing off some things and I can't believe I'm here... in his house. About to just hang out with him, watch a movie or whatever. It's nice. It's nice this is moving forward and stuff.

"You sure you can just hang out?"

"Yeah," Troy says as we sit on the couch in their movie room, "it's fine."

Okay, if he says so. "Hey, did Cooper say anything to you? Because they saw us at the mall and Julia was kinda mad."

He laughs, leaning back a bit and throwing his arm over me, well over the couch, "I haven't seen him, but I got a text from him... 'dude, seriously? You and Gabriella? You haven't even bothered to mention it?' So then I casually told him, yeah, and that was it. Was Julia actually mad?"

"I don't know, maybe she was just a little bitter at the fact that I didn't let her set me up, yet here I am with you, you know? Maybe that's it."

"I'm way better than Charlie," he says.

Don't know this Charlie guy, but I don't doubt it. "They're fine, though. I wasn't intentionally not telling them."

Troy nods, "no, yeah, for sure. Well, I guess now we can all go out."

The thought of double dating with them comes into my head. And all I can think about is when Chris and I would go out with them. Quite often, actually. So, going out with someone else with them will be kinda strange. I think. I don't know. Obviously, I'm not going to say no because this is going somewhere, but it's just bringing back some memories right now for me.

"What's your favorite color?"

"What?" I'm caught a little off guard. Troy was just scrolling through movies and now he's asking me what my favorite color is?

"I don't know," he shrugs, "I realized I don't know small things about you."

This gives me butterflies, of course. I'm always getting stupid butterflies when I'm around him. The fact that he's thinking about this and wants to ask me is sweet. He actually cares about my favorite color? "It's always been red. I like blue a lot, too. What's yours?"

He thinks about it for a moment and then looks over at me, "yeah, blue. Or maybe green."

"Favorite movie?"

"Oh man," Troy throws his head back, "all time? I'm not sure, but at the moment, it's Whiplash. So freaking good... favorite fruit?"

"I'd say watermelon. But it has to be, like, super hard. I really like peaches, too." I had to think about that one for a moment. I've never been asked that question and I've never really thought about it, either. Let's see. What can I ask him next? "What's your favorite holiday?"

He looked like he was really thinking about this one. "It's a tie between Christmas and Thanksgiving. Obviously, Christmas has greater meaning..."

Right. Jesus was born. Christmas is my favorite.

"Thanksgiving, though," he continues, "everyone's grateful and nice. But yeah, I'd say Christmas."

Questions like this continued for the next ten minutes or so. Just simple questions you never think to ask a person you're just starting to date. And it was nice. I found out things about him that would be useful if this were to turn into something serious. Like I would know what to get him at Starbucks if I didn't have enough time to ask him or if I wanted to surprise him. And I know what he loves to snack on during movies... chocolate covered raisins.

Things like that.

"Sorry, I'll be right back," he tells me, getting up, probably going to check outside.

I didn't mind. This is what he's supposed to be doing. Plus, I don't need to watch a movie, it's just something we said we'd do. I'd come and keep him company so whatever, he can take his time and do what he needs to do.

Meanwhile, I check all my social media and text back my sister who texted me when I got here. I read it, but didn't reply then, so I'll do so now.

A few minutes later, Troy came back and we decided to start watching a movie... The Grand Budapest Hotel.

We both hadn't seen it and heard it was good, so yeah.

Thirty minutes into the movie, I leaned over and rested my head on his chest because why not? I like to cuddle, we're watching a movie, it's the perfect time to do so, right? And he didn't mind. He fully embraced it, even giving me a kiss. And I was comfortable. So comfortable.

But ten minutes before the movie was over, Riley came in and asked Troy for a favor.

"Can you take Ben and Kyle home?" she asks with puppy dog eyes, "please. They need a ride."

"Are they drunk?"

"Ben, sort of. Kyle's car is in the shop and they need to get home."

Troy groans, but agrees. Ben and Kyle are close friends of Riley, so Troy knows them and it's not a problem, I think he just wanted to finish the movie. It's 11:30, so not that late, but I'm sure they have curfews or whatever. He tells me he'll back back in 15 minutes, since they don't live far, and then walks out of the living room and leaves me sitting there on the couch with Riley standing in front of me with a smile on her face.

I wasn't uncomfortable or anything. And I could easily just go on my phone if I'm bored.

But Riley sat down next to me. "Sorry for interrupting your guys' movie."

"Oh, it's fine," I smile at her, "shit happens."

"Ugh, I know," she rolls her eyes, leaning back, "My friend Jack was supposed to take them home, but Jack got a ride here so they didn't have a ride after all and ugh... whatever. Anyway, what's up with you and my brother? Dating? Seriously? He'll kill me if he knows I'm sitting here asking like this."

I laugh. She's so... out there. Not out there, but so not shy. She just says what's on her mind. "Yeah, yeah, I guess we're dating."

She smiled, "so cute. I've secretly been hoping he'd date someone soon. Don't tell him I said that."

"He has dated, though," I tell her, laughing. "Callie?"

"Who?"

"You don't know about Callie?"

She shrugs, looking completely lost. "Um, no. I don't think I've ever heard him mention a Callie. The last girl was his ex girlfriend and then a few weeks ago, you. Wait, he dated someone between you guys and he didn't tell me? Maybe it wasn't serious, or he didn't think it was worth mentioning."

Oh wow. Okay. Um... Callie and Troy dated for longer than him and I have been. They were never really official, but they definitely spent more time together than him and I. So the fact that he never mentioned her but he mentioned me, he talked about me, he asked me to come over... well, that means something. Obviously. Right? Shit. I don't even know what to really think right now.

I know this whole thing between Troy and I is going somewhere. I know that I'm very much into him. And he likes me.

But for some reason, right now, it just feels way more real.

"Yeah, I guess so," I smile at her, trying not to let her know that I'm deeply thinking about this.

"So, you guys met in class. And then just started hanging out..." she was trying to figure out what was going on, "I really try not to be that sister that gets involved in my siblings relationships and all that, but I just want to let you know that I think Troy really likes you and so, I hope you like him."

She seems so sincere. And like she really cares about it. That's so sweet to see. "No, yeah, I like him. He's great, as you know..."

Riley smiles, "yeah, I just... you know his last relationship didn't quite end well, so as a sister, you want him to move on and find something great. I know it's still soon and stuff, but I hope you guys are happy and heading in that direction."

"Yeah," is all I really say, "yeah, it's great."

It is great.

It has been great. It really has. I love hanging out with him. I love seeing him. I love kissing him.

But all of a sudden, I feel a bit weird about it. I don't think Troy is moving too fast. I don't think he's sitting here telling his sister that I'm the one, and that he's falling in love or anything like that. And I never thought that neither of us had any intentions of this being casual or anything like that, but I don't know. I'm just feeling a little weird about it. I'm feeling like it's becoming real. And all of a sudden, I'm kind of terrified. I'm scared of what could happen.

I don't want to get into another situation where I'm madly in love and then I get my heart broken and stomped all over.

"Sorry, I have to get back out there, but I'm sure Troy will be back soon."

"Yeah, no, go ahead," I tell Riley.

And when she walks out, and I'm left there by myself, all I can think about is how I don't want to get my heart broken again. I don't want Troy Bolton to be that guy that makes me fall madly in love and then just rips my heart out. It'll be 2/2 and I don't want to put myself through that.

It's the last thing I want.

And the more we hang out, the more of a possibility it is.

Ugh.


	15. Chapter 15

"Troy's calling!"

"That's fine, leave it," I tell Summer as I'm in her kitchen grabbing a water.

I come back into the living room where we're doing some homework and right away she gives me a weird look.

She then grabs my phone and hands it to me, "why don't you want to talk to him? You always want to talk to him. It's been like that for the past couple of weeks. Did something happen this weekend when you went over to his house? Oh my gosh... you guys didn't, no, you didn't have sex with him?"

"No, Sum," I snatch my phone, "no. I just... maybe I shouldn't be moving too fast with him."

"Moving too fast?" she asks, "you seriously think that's happening? Because I don't. And you know I would let you know if that were the case, for sure."

She's right. I don't think we are.

I think we're moving at a normal pace for a couple who is in their 20's and live near each other and go to the same school.

But I'm just making excuses. All of a sudden, I remembered how scary it is to be in a relationship. And talking to his sister, I just felt that even though I know that we were heading in that direction, it just made it more real. And it made me get out of lala land and into reality and realize that I'm putting myself out there to possibly get hurt again. To possibly have another relationship end in disaster.

"I think I'm just scared he's going to hurt me," I confess to her.

Summer immediately paused the TV and turned to me, "what? Gabriella, where's all this coming from?"

Ugh. Right? "I pushed it to the side when this fucking hot guy talked to me and was nice to me. But my head's out of the clouds now and although he's kind and he's nice and he seems so genuine, it's a possibility, Sum. I'm putting myself out there again only to possibly get hurt, to get my heart broken."

"Well, sure, but you don't know that's going to happen," she tries to reason with me.

"I don't not know it."

"That's a part of life, though. You can't just not get into a relationship or not date because you don't want to get hurt. No one wants to get hurt, but it happens and people move on from it. And I'm sure you will, too. You have from Chris. It's not that bad."

No, I know, but the thought just terrifies me. I never want to go through that again. I really, really don't. It was bad.

And maybe with a person like Troy who could have anyone, it's a possibility.

"I just can't help, but feel this way," I sigh.

"So what, you're going to ignore him until he breaks it off with you because it's no use in trying?"

"No," I shake my head, realizing what I'm doing is probably really dumb. "I'm just not as quick to jump at hanging out with him or seeing him, I guess. It's a weird situation where we're not together, but we practically are, and I'm right back in that place where you could get your heart broken."

Summer shakes her head, "you can't live like that, Gabriella."

I know I can't. It's no way to live. It really isn't. But Summer has never gone through what I've gone through. She's never had her heart broken.

So, she can't relate to me at all.

"The only way to guarantee yourself not getting hurt is if you don't date at all," she tells me, "it's not like you can tell him, let's slow this down a bit. Because not only are you guys not moving fast, but you're still going to be dating and it's still going to be progressing and sooner or later, you're going to get to the point where you're in love with him or with some other guy. There's no win here. You just need to let go."

"It's hard, Sum," I grab my water, "it's really hard. I don't want to cut it off completely because I really do like him. I'm just scared."

"Honestly, it's useless being scared since you don't want to cut it off."

True. I don't want to cut it off at all.

So what I do is I pick up my phone and I call Troy back. I get up and go over to her kitchen just to give myself a little bit of privacy. Summer can probably still hear what I'm going to be saying, but not as much. Whatever, I don't even care.

On the third ring, he picks up. And his voice is so sexy.

"Sorry," I tell him.

"Oh no worries," he says, like the nice guy he is, of course. "What's up? What are you doing?"

"I'm just at Summer's doing a bit of homework. What about you?"

There's a pause on the phone for a moment but I think he's searching through some stuff. I hear some rattling noise. But then he's back on the phone. "Sorry I'm just getting rid of some stuff. But what are you doing later? Do you maybe want to grab some dinner or see a movie?"

Shit. I do and I don't. I'm so back and forth.

But I tell him yes because ultimately, I want to hang out with him. I like Troy. I like Troy Bolton and I can't just stop now. No way.

I'm scared as hell, though.

The last thing I want, the last thing I need is to get hurt.

* * *

"I'm not going to be all dramatic and say you're being weird or distant because I've seen you for the past few days," Troy starts telling me as he's dropping me off at home after dinner, "but is something wrong? Did I do something?"

Shit. He's onto me.

I just can't stop thinking about it now. It's on my mind all the time that something could go wrong.

Before it wasn't because I was so caught up in having a great time with him, in hanging out with someone new, someone beautiful. And it all just went to the back of my mind that maybe getting into a new relationship isn't that great of an idea. I don't know. It's such a weird thing.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong," I tell him.

"Then what's up?" he turns on the living room lights for us, "you can tell me if something's bothering you..."

"I'm fine," I tell him, "yeah, I'm fine. I think I'm just stressed or something."

It doesn't look like h buys it at all. And I didn't expect him, too. No one has to know me for very long to know when something's wrong. I wear it all over my face and tonight, well, tonight, I wasn't exactly laughing like normal at dinner. I wasn't excited about being at one of my favorite places. So, of course he caught on. Of course he knows something's up. And it's just not something I really want to talk about right now. Or maybe even ever.

He drops his keys on the table and then turns to me, "you can tell me if I did something to upset you. I'm not going to get mad or whatever over it."

"You didn't do anything!"

"Then, why are you being weird towards me?"

"I don't think I'm being weird towards you," I tell him, taking my jacket off and tossing it on the couch.

He gives me an, are you serious, look, and then just shakes his head a little bit. "I can go back and list all the things on why I think you're being weird, but I'm not going to do that. I just want you to be straight up with me. If I did something, if I do something that you don't like, tell me."

Fuck. He's not making this easy. He's not making it easy to walk away.

But that's the thing, I don't want to walk away. I'm not looking to walk away. I'm really not.

I don't know what I want. I guess I just want to be able to look into the future and see if he'll ever hurt me. And if he does hurt me, if it'll be as bad as Chris or not. What he will do to hurt me. If he'll cheat on me, or if he'll lie about all these things. I just want to know everything. I want to know if it's okay to get into a relationship with him. I want to know if he'll be honest and truthful with me about everything and anything.

That's what I want.

"I don't want to talk about it, Troy."

"But I do," he argues, "honestly, Gabriella, what is it?"

FUCK. He's so persistent that I can't hold it in any longer. "I don't want you to hurt me, okay?!"

The second those words leave my mouth, his face kind of drops and a blank look washes over it. I don't think he expected me to say that at all. And I'm not sure what he's thinking because he's not saying anything, but it's out there... and now we're going to have to talk about it. Ugh.

"What?" he breathes, "what are you... why are you thinking like that?"

"Because things are good, I like you, and the more I like you, the more you can hurt me and it's the last thing I want. I don't need that again."

"So, it's nothing I've done to make you think that?"

Well, no, now that I think about it. He hardly goes on his phone when I'm around. He's not talking to other girls on his twitter or instagram or anything like that. He's never looking at any other girls when we're out. I just don't get that vibe from him. I feel like he likes me and that this is going well and yeah, I'm the only girl he likes and I'm the only girl he's dating and everything like that. But still.

Guys lie. And guys cheat.

I shake my head, though, "no, not exactly, I just don't..."

"Then why would you think like that?' he continues, "look, I know you've been hurt. I know your ex was an asshole..."

"He betrayed me in the worst way possible!""

"Of course," he nods, being understanding, "but you can't live like that. You can't live thinking every person you date is going to hurt you."

Exactly what Summer said.

And what other people would have said as well. It's nothing I don't already know.

"Gabriella, I like you," Troy tells me, "I do. And I want you to be my girlfriend. I want that relationship with you. But I'm not going to go all in when you're going to be there, not going all in, having these walls up, thinking I'm going to one day hurt you. Maybe I will, but I promise you, it will never be intentional and it'll be the last thing I'll ever want. And it'll be way out of my control if it were to happen. I don't want to hurt you, I don't even dream about hurting you. You're the first girl in a long time that I've been able to see myself with... for real. And I wanna say I'm going to do everything in my power to not hurt you, but I don't think it'll be that hard because when it comes to you, I just want to make you happy and I want you to make me happy."

"Troy," I can't even find the right words to say. Everything he just said... was perfect. So perfect.

He gives me the smallest of smiles and then comes closer to me. "I'm not your ex boyfriend. I know a good thing when I have one, okay?"

And that is when everything just washed away.

Every fear, every worry, every hesitation to keep this going... gone.

Troy Bolton and Chris Matthews are two different people. They treat me differently and I act differently around Troy than I did with Chris. They're two separate relationships and I need to remember that. I need to not be afraid and think bad things are going to happen.

He could hurt me. But it's out of my control and I need to just live with it, but I can't keep thinking about it every moment or the day from now on.

But hearing him say he never wants to hurt me, that's more than enough.

"I'm sorry," I tell him, throwing my hands over my face for a second in embarrassment, "it's just, this weekend, I don't know, it felt real, you and me... and when it feels real, that's how you know it'll hurt. And I'm just being paranoid I guess. I know not all guys are the same and I shouldn't think that."

"That's fine," Troy tells me, "it's fine. You have a right to feel however you want to feel."

"I don't wanna feel this way."

He gave me a small smile and came even closer, "it's normal, but I hope over time, you'll see that I'm in this and really, I don't want to hurt you. I like you more than I probably should and all I really want is for you to see that, for you to let your guard down and see what could happen."

I want that. I want to let my guard down. I don't want to have walls up. I want to trust him, one hundred percent.

But that takes time, obviously. I want it, though.

"Okay," I tell him, wrapping my arms around him, "I'll try."

"Good," he smiles down at me, wrapping his arms around me, too, "because I want you to be my girlfriend. I think it's about time, don't you?"

Yes. I think so, too. "I think so."

And then we seal this moment with a kiss.

Troy Bolton could hurt me. But at the same time, I could hurt him. Who really knows. You can't live life being scared. You can't step away from relationships because you're afraid of getting hurt when it's not even happening at the time. You just can't. And I know that, but everything in my mind was just going crazy and he brought me back down to Earth and made me realize that hurting people is not intentional. For some people, it is. Some people know exactly what they're doing. Like Chris. And I think that's what got to me. He hurt me on purpose. And I can't shake that feeling off sometimes.

But I have to. I want to. And I will. I will because Troy is not Chris and I have to put my trust in him.

I'm his girlfriend now, he's my boyfriend and I can't wait to see where we go.

I'm ready for it.


	16. Chapter 16

"Pizza or Chinese?" Troy asks me as I'm reading over these notes for one of my classes.

I need a break, though, and I'm starving. So I push it all away and turn around to see him. "Um, whatever you want."

He gives me an annoyed look because he probably knows by now I don't really mean it. I always say that, but as he's getting ready to order I always change my mind. It's been this constant thing for a month now. "Okay, I'm going to order some pizza. Hawaiian."

"Okay, fine, Chinese," I laugh, trying to give him a cute smile.

He shakes his head and goes back to the kitchen and grabs the menu for the place and orders what we usually get. Yes, we have a USUAL. Ah.

I sit on the counter for a minute and just think about where I am. In my boyfriend's apartment. My boyfriend. My different boyfriend. Troy Bolton. Who's so beautiful. And so kind. And so funny. And makes me feel so beautiful all the time. I can't get over it. It's been a month of being officially together. I didn't think it would actually become this, you know?

But here I am, feeling so happy. Feeling completely different that I did a few months ago when I thought my life was over.

"Food should be here in 30," he calls out to me.

I get up and go into the kitchen with him, where he's pouring himself a glass or water from the fridge.

And I kind of just stand there and watch him do it. And take him in.

But I think it starts getting a bit uncomfortable for him because he turns to me, chuckles a bit and asks what I'm doing. "You're freaking me out a bit."

"No, it's nothing," I take a step forward and still, just stare at him. Taking in every inch. In the least possible creepy way. His blue eyes. Those are definitely my favorite. They're SO blue. And so mesmerizing and I can get lost in them for hours. I take another step, and then wrap my arms around his waist and look up at him like a little girl would her parents. But he is taller than me, so, it's necessary. "It's just... you make me happy."

"What?" he looks down and smiles at me, "I mean, you make me happy, too."

I can tell he feels a little confused as to why I'm saying it. I mean, we're boyfriend and girlfriend. Does it just imply that we make each other happy? Yeah, sure, but I want to tell him. I want him to know that he's making me happy. Because he really, really does. "I just want you to know that."

He kisses the top of my forehead and wraps his arm around me, too. "And I want you to know, too."

"I don't want to be all cheesy and lame, but I'm serious."

"I'm serious, too," he laughs, leaning back a bit, but still has his arms around me, "you brought it up, so let's talk about it. Let's talk about how happy you make me, and how I'm glad you said yes to my stupid ass idea to go to fucking Sea World."

I laugh, throwing my head back in dramatic fashion. It was unusual for sure. But, it ended up being the best time. "Hey, I told you that was one of the best days. And I meant it. I know this is still, you know, we're only a month in, a couple if you count hanging dating a month before becoming official, but I like it. I like this. And I'm gonna be really cheesy really quick, but you're constantly pulling at my heartstrings and it just makes me... happy."

Four months ago, I didn't think this could ever happen, honestly.

And by this I mean be with another guy. Because I was with Chris. And I often thought he could be the one for me.

But he wasn't. He's not the one for me.

Is Troy the one for me? Holy fuck. That scares me to even think about because he's only been my boyfriend for a month. I have NO idea if he's the one. But knowing that I can move on from Chris is enough for me right now. And it's all because of him. He's so great. And he makes me happy. I'm really happy and that's weird to say or think because it has been a short amount of time, but it's different. It's a different kind of feeling and I'm glad I'm feeling it.

"Well, speaking of being happy, I know we don't know where we're going to be in a couple months," Troy starts telling me, but pauses for a second I think to see how I'm reacting, "but one of my best friends live in Tennessee and I know you've been dying to go to Nashville, so..."

"Wait, you want me to go with you to visit your friend?"

He shrugs, "yeah, if you want. Ben's coming with me, I was going to invite Julia and Cooper, too."

Oh okay. Cool. I know we're older and everything, but still, going away together at like, five months, well it'll be five months when we'd go, is a little... I don't know, a little too much. Who knows, though, if we'll be madly in love that it won't feel too soon. Or if we'll be broken up and it wouldn't even matter anyway.

But I have always wanted to go to Nashville. I love the South. I love country music. I love live music. I love southern food. Everything southern.

So I think I'm in. "Okay, yeah, let's see where we're at then. But I'd love to."

"Cool," he smiles down at me, "the last week or so of July, so don't make any plans."

And just like that, I'm suddenly feeling... happier. I'm suddenly feeling more secure. The thought of him wanting to take me to Nashville shouldn't be a big deal, but it kind of is. Going away together. Going away somewhere to meet one of his best friends. A best friend I've heard all about. That's kind of big, right? It feels a bit to me. And I know anything can happen, but still, right now, he wants me to go and that says a lot.

Ugh I like Troy Bolton so much and I never saw this coming.

* * *

"I can't believe we're almost done with school," Julia grabs some chips from the middle of the table.

Cooper follows her lead, but dips them in the salsa, "I'm so fucking excited."

Troy and I don't really care for the chips in this place so we skip out. It was their idea to come here, and we like the food, just not the chips.

"It's so scary too, because like, what are we going to do, you know?" Julia motions between her and Cooper. She is SO open with people she's close to and it means she trusts us and whatever, but sometimes it feels a little too personal. "I don't know if I'm going to stay in San Diego, I don't know any of that, but Coop, I know he wants to move back to LA..."

"We still have time," Cooper, I think is trying to steer away from the conversation, "it'll all be fine, babe."

I know Cooper. And I know he has no intentions of getting out of this relationship and going back to LA wouldn't be to do that. He loves Julia. He's one hundred, a thousand percent committed and if she were to stay here, they'd stick it out.

But their whole relationship, they've never been apart, so it'll be weird for them. And it'll probably be hard if they'll have to do it.

"Ugh, you guys are so lucky," Julia looks at Troy and I, "you're both in LA, so you know, whatever happens, happens."

"Yeah," is all I really say.

I don't really want to talk about mine and Troy's future in front of other people.

Troy and I, we've talked about it a bit here and there, but it's still so early. We've only known each other like three months, two of those months have been dating each other, and so, we don't really talk about it. There's no need to talk about it, anyway. We're both going back to LA after graduation, anyway.

Before Julia could say anything else, Troy's phone rang.

He took it out of his pocket and I could clearly see who was calling him.

Becca Hampton.

"Sorry guys," Troy apologizes, "um, I should probably get this. It could be important."

Important? Whatever. He didn't see that I saw so I'm not sure if he's trying to play it off as being his mom or dad or something, but I know he's walking away right now to talk to Becca. And I'm not mad or anything like that because they're best friends, but just a few days ago, during a movie, he paused it so he could talk to her. And he kept me waiting for, like, twenty minutes, which I wasn't too thrilled about.

But I get it. They're best friends. Maybe she's going through something. I'm not going to get upset at him for being a good friend.

It's not like he's trying to hide it, either.

Well, he wasn't the other day. I'm not so sure about today.

"So how are things with you guys?" Julia asks as soon as he's gone, "everything good? You guys look so happy."

"I am happy," I smile, grabbing my drink, "yeah, things are good. I never imagined dating again because when you're in a relationship and you're in love, you don't really see an end to it, but here I am... four months later. I'm happy. Things are good."

Julia looks over at Cooper, like she's waiting for him to say, awww, with her. But he's busy grabbing some more chips. "I think you two are so good together."

I think we are, too. We're a nice balance. And we hardly ever argue, which is good.

"Thanks," I smile at her. And then I go through my purse for some chapstick, but I realized I must have left it in Cooper's car when I applied it on the way here. "Hey, can I have your keys? I think I left my chapstick in your car and you guys know how psychotic I am about applying it."

Julia laughs as Cooper reaches into his pockets to grab them for me.

I get out of the booth, walk out of the restaurant and go to his car in the parking lot and along the way, I see Troy sitting outside on the phone.

But I don't stop. I just walk the opposite way and continue to get my chapstick.

On the way back, though, he sees me and motions for me to come over to him so I do. I sit down as he's talking to Becca and just wait. He had his hand on me leg and is telling Becca to just give it a day or something and then tells her that he's at dinner and he's being rude so he has to go.

"Sorry," he tells me.

"Oh, it's fine. Is everything okay?"

He nods, "yeah, she's just a little dramatic. The other day she had a stressful job interview, today, she doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, but it's nothing that should be keeping me away from dinner, so let's go. I'm starving."

I smile at him. He's so nice. And aware. "Okay."

So hand in hand, we go back inside the restaurant. And I love more than anything to hold his hand.

I like Troy Bolton. A lot, a lot.


	17. Chapter 17

Troy told me the door was open so to just come in, so that's what I did.

But now that I'm standing in his apartment, I feel like I should be anywhere but. It feels weird in here.

He's on the phone and I don't know who with, but he's sitting on the couch, holding his head in his hand and it looks serious. It doesn't look like he's freaking out so I don't think any of his family members are in the hospital or anything, but I think it's just maybe a friend problem or something like that.

I'm kind of just standing in the kitchen, against the counter on my phone, but from here you can pretty much hear everything.

"I know, I know, Bec, you feel like..." he stops talking, probably because she starts talking on the other end. I don't know. But now I know he's talking to Becca. Of course. "I can't understand you. At all."

It seems a little serious. Not like someone died or anything, but maybe she's just having some friend troubles or something. I'm not sure how often they talk on the phone or text because well, I'm not with Troy 24/7, but I know they do. Just last week, they were on the phone for a while talking things going on in her life. So, maybe it's that again. I don't know. But of course she's going to call him when something is wrong with her. And that's fine. Maybe I just shouldn't be here right now, though. Maybe I should go or something.

So I walk out of the kitchen, go over to Troy and try to get his attention.

"Hey, I'm just going to go," I tell him while he holds his hand over the phone for a second, "you look busy, so take care of that and..."

"No," he says, standing up, "no, please don't."

So I don't. Instead I stand here while he gives me a kiss on the lips and then walks over to the kitchen really quick to get a water out of the fridge. He still has the phone glued to his ear and letting her talk, I assume, because he's not really saying anything at the moment.

Until he comes back in the living room. "Bec, I have to go. Because Gabriella's here. Yes. No, okay, fine. I'll call you later, okay? Preoccupy yourself. Bye."

He hung up the phone, threw it on the couch and then came over to me.

I'm not one to be nosy, but this is Becca. His best friend. Who he used to be in love with. I mean, I'm a little curious as to the conversation they were having, you know? "Is everything okay?"

"Not really," he says with a sigh, "Becca and Patrick broke up and she's kind of a mess."

"They broke up?" I don't even know them personally and think it's weird. They were together for SO long. All of college. Some high school. "Really?"

He chuckles a bit and goes around the couch and sits down and uncaps his water and drinks almost half of it. "There was a lot of crying because it JUST happened, but it was pretty mutual. I mean, obviously, she wishes it would have worked out. It just kind of dissolved over time, I think."

Man, that's gotta suck. I don't know her at all. Or have ever talked to her, but I feel for her. "I can't even imagine what she's going through. Four years..."

"I know," he shakes his head, "I really thought they were going to stick it out."

"Maybe they will," I suggest, "if nothing dramatic happened, maybe a little time apart will make them realize that they really do love each other and can't be without one another. It happens all the time."

Troy shrugs as he leans back on the couch. "Yeah, it's possible. I like the guy. I've just always thought she could do better."

Okay, hm, I don't really know what to say to this. Him saying a girl who he was once in love with could do better? I'm not jealous... it's just a weird situation for me. He's told me he doesn't have any feelings for her. Before we got together, and while we've been together so I believe he doesn't.

But it's still weird. She's now single. She's now on the market for the first time in YEARS.

"I know plenty of great guys," I suggest, "my cousin? Graduating at the top of his class at Stanford. Perfect."

"Nah," he laughs, "not her type."

Not her type? I wasn't being completely serious. Just trying to add something to the conversation. But Troy knows what cousin I'm talking about, so why wouldn't he be her type? He's attractive, smart, ambitious, KIND. "What's her type then? Someone with nothing going for them? Jerk? Ugly?"

Troy looks over at me and gives me a weird look. "No, no, I didn't mean to... look, I'm sure your cousin is great. I just don't think it'll work out."

"Okay." I drop it. Because really, what else is there to say or do? "Well, I hope she's okay."

"Yeah, me too," he gazes off for a moment and I'm just sitting here feeling really weird about this whole thing. Like it's really affecting him or something. But then he turns to me, gives me a smile and grabs my hand. "I'm sorry. We were gonna go have lunch so let's go have lunch. Whenever you want."

I give him a smile and nod, "yeah, I'm starving."

Troy Bolton is just being a good friend. Any good friend should react this way, right? That's what I'm telling myself.

And right now, all I wanna do is go to lunch with my incredibly hot boyfriend.

So we do. Hand in hand... again.

* * *

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Always," Julia looks up from her acai bowl, "what's up?"

Emily looks over at me, probably also wondering what I'm going to ask Julia. We all went on a hike this morning and now we're enjoying acai bowls and green juices because the weather in San Diego right now is so beautiful, it'd be such a waste to be inside.

But something's been on my mind all day yesterday and I just need to talk about it. "Were you ever jealous of me or Emily?"

"Because Cooper's your best friend?"

"Yeah," I shrug, "like did you ever hate us or wish he stopped hanging with us?"

Julia put her spoon down and looked over at Emily, who was now intrigued, and then looked back at me. "No. I mean, it wasn't so much jealousy because like I knew I wasn't in his life for that long so why would he tell me personal things or stuff like that? I didn't expect to be the number one girl in his life just like that, you know? I still don't, really. But I was a little envious because I really liked this guy and he shared things with you guys, you know?"

Yeah, I understand that. It's exactly how I feel, but also... just weird. I feel weird about it.

"Would it have been different if you knew he had feelings for me?"

"What?" she says, "are you trying to tell me something? Because I will be so upset if you guys didn't disclose that."

I shake my head, laughing a bit, "No, no, sorry. I'm just... maybe I'm just being paranoid. But Troy, he used to be in love with Becca, who's his best friend, but she's had this boyfriend for four years, so he's over it. They broke up, though, and they've been talking on the phone lately when I'm around and it's just this weird feeling... I don't know what to do."

Emily spoke up for the first time during this conversation, "wait. He used to be in love with his best friend and now she's single?"

"Yes," I hate the way she worded that, "yes, and I think I'm going crazy."

"Has he been acting different around you since then?"

I shake my head again, "well, it only happened yesterday, but no. I mean, he got off the phone with her when I got there, telling her I was there and he had to go. And then we went to lunch and it was fine. Normal. But I just get this weird vibe. She's a free woman now, you know? And he loved her!"

Julia frowned, "so what, you think something could happen now? Gabs, he's crazy about you."

"He is?"

"Yes!" She exclaims, "I think so."

I'm crazy about him. I really, really am. "It's not like it's been this ongoing thing where it's been weeks of them talking on the phone and he's pulling away or anything, but it's all I've been thinking about since yesterday. The simple fact that he could go back to that place."

Emily shook her head, "no, don't think like that. He's in this with you."

"Yeah, Gabs, he likes you, and he's not just going to dumb you because she's single again. That's crazy," Julia agrees with her.

"Maybe," is all I can bring myself to saying.

But I don't know. I don't know anything. He's told me he's over her. He's told me he doesn't have any feelings for her. But that was before she was single, before everything. Who knows now. I know it'll do me no good thinking about it, though.

I shouldn't think about it. I shouldn't even be feeling this way because he hasn't given me a reason to feel weird about it. It's just my insecurities.

And I have to let go of that before I mess this thing up.

Troy and I have something special and I have to remember that and trust in it.

So I am... for the time being.


	18. Chapter 18

"So how long is this girl staying?" Summer dips her fry in some ranch before throwing it in her mouth.

"She's coming tomorrow afternoon, I think leaving Sunday,"" I shrug, not really caring. I don't think I'm particularly fond of Becca.

Summer wipes her mouth and washes her food down with some iced tea. She gives me this look and I know she's going to ask what's wrong, but I don't really have an answer to what's wrong, exactly. I mean, how can I be upset about his best friend visiting? She's visited so many times before me. And she probably will after. I don't know. Who knows, really. I haven't really asked details about their friendship. We hardly talk about her, to be honest.

But she asks anyway. "You don't already like the girl and you haven't even met her?"

"I'm sure she's a nice girl," I tell her, "it's just annoying how all of a sudden she breaks up with her boyfriend and she comes to visit Troy. Like, this wasn't some planned trip. It's spontaneous. What the heck."

"Okay, sure, he might have been in love with her, but if she was, I don't think she would have spent FOUR years with her boyfriend. So just relax."

"What, you don't think she has any feelings for him? And I'm just being crazy about this whole thing?"

Summer shrugs as she picks up some more fries. "I'd say. She was in love with this guy. She was with him for well over four years. She's had Troy much longer than that. If she wanted Troy, I'm sure she would have got him. I don't think you really have anything to worry about. She's just visiting so she can get out of New York for a bit, probably. Get away from him and clear her mind."

Yeah, that's exactly why she's visiting. That's what Troy said. So I mean, I can't fault her for that... wanting to get out of New York.

Besides, Troy's been really open with me about how he doesn't have feelings for her anymore.

"I'm just being weird," I conclude, grabbing some fries as well and throwing them in my mouth, "and I know. She knows he liked her, she knows he had these feelings for her, yet she still stayed with her boyfriend. So I mean, maybe she really only sees him like I see Cooper. I'm just being weird."

"Yeah, you probably are," Summer smiles at me, 'trust me. If she knew, she would have got him if she wanted him."

Right. It's just hard to imagine because who wouldn't want him?

Maybe he was different then. Maybe he was immature. Maybe he played the field too much.

I really don't know because I'm trying to think of why Becca wouldn't want him. Because he's great. I... really like him. And I'm happy with him. And he just seems like everything you would want in a guy so it confuses me why Becca wouldn't want that. A boyfriend and a best friend all in one?

"That doesn't mean Troy doesn't want her, though."

"Stop, don't go there," Summer rolls her eyes, "he likes you, he's in this with you and he's not going to go blow that because his best friend is single."

"Well why not!?" I exclaim rather loudly, "Peter Adams, I was so in love with him in middle school. I was dating Cameron in 9th grade and when I found out he broke up with Chrissy, all I wanted to do was break up with Peter and get with him."

Summer laughs, "oh my gosh, you guys were fourteen, fifteen. It's different now. He's not going to do that."

Whatever. "I guess I'm being paranoid."

She agrees with me, "she's visiting for a couple days, you're going to give them their best friend space, maybe get to know her a little bit and when she leaves, Troy will still want you. Trust me, I've seen the way that boy looks at you. He likes you. And you like him. So, relax."

Yeah, yeah, I have to. I have to relax if I don't wanna fall apart.

So, I take a deep breath and tell myself she's only going to be here a couple of days.

It's going to be fine.

* * *

"I think she's here," Troy says, putting down his phone.

"Oh, she is?" I ask, like a dumb ass. Of course she's here. He told me she was on her way.

Troy and I literally just got home from class two minutes ago. He had a presentation so he couldn't miss class to pick her up fro the airport so she just took a taxi or something like that. And now she's here. And I'm here... per Troy's request. He wanted me to meet her, of course.

But I don't know. I feel nervous. And weird. And I just hope we get along.

He jumped off the couch and went to open the door and no one was there yet, but he left it open for when she came up. And so I got up, too, because that'd be rude of me, right? To just be sitting on the couch? Yeah.

So I walked over to him and kind of just stood there. Troy turned to me, though, wrapped his arms around my waist and bent down to give me a kiss.

"Okay, you lovebirds, cut it out," we hear a voice.

It's Becca, of course. And she's talking like she knows me. Which is I guess, cool? She's joking around. That's a good sign, right?

Troy dropped his hands and immediately went to hug her. They embraced for longer than I would have liked, but whatever, they haven't seen each other in a couple months so it's fine. They're best friends, after all. And then when they let go of each other, Troy stepped to the side and introduced me.

"Oh wow, you're pretty," Becca says as if she was expecting some ugly person.

"Thank you?" I half accept her compliment, half ask it as a question because I really don't know what she meant by it.

"So, you two are like a real thing?" Becca takes her glasses off and puts them on the top of her head while Troy closes the door behind her. "Well, that's just great. How long have you guys officially been together? Troy's told me a bit, but I've been so busy these past couple months. I've been such a bad friend."

Troy waves it off as if it's nothing and then we all gradually move over to the living room area.

I sit down on the sofa chair because well, it's my favorite. It's SO comfortable. And Troy and Becca sit down on the sofa diagonal from me.

Becca immediately gets up and goes over to the picture of them and picks it up with a laugh, "oh my gosh. I can't believe you have this up here. We look SO young, for some reason. Oh man, that was such a fun night."

"I know, you practically begged me to..." Troy stopped talking. He immediately stopped what he was going to say.

And I'm sitting here, confused as hell. Why didn't he finish what he was saying? Is it... too personal? Something they don't talk about in front of other people? Some sort of secret that's only between them? Did anything happen between them? Oh my gosh, I'm going to go crazy. SO CRAZY.

But then Troy spoke up and everything was fine. Well, for me. "Sorry. I shouldn't talk about him."

"It's fine," Becca puts the picture down and gives him a small smile, "how could you not look at that picture and think about how I forced you, basically dragged you out of your room to go to this party?"

It was about Patrick. That's why Troy stopped talking. But still. I feel like maybe they should have best friend time and discuss all of this.

So I speak up. "I think I'm going to go run a few errands or something."

"Why?" Troy asks me, "Bec just got here."

"Yeah, but I'm sure you guys have a lot of catching up to do, you know, with living on opposite ends of the country." Thank God for that. Just kidding... well, I don't know. It's a weird situation for me. "Besides, it's really none of my business."

Becca gave me a sly smile, like she's appreciative of me leaving or something. So there's that.

But Troy wanted me to stay, which is nice. It feels good. "Come on. Aren't we all going out to dinner soon, anyway? What do you even have to do?"

"I have to get a new computer charger, I can't keep using Emily's," I tell him, something he knows I've been needing to do, "I should put gas in my car. Just things. Honestly. You two catch up. You don't need me here."

"You're coming to dinner, though?" Becca asks, basically trying to say that they'll see me at dinner anyway. She's not trying to tell me to stay like Troy.

I know she probably wants to be alone with him. I know she probably doesn't want to talk about her breakup with some girl she just met. So honestly, it's fine. I think Troy was just amped on me meeting one of his best friends. But I'll see her later. I'll see her tomorrow. And Sunday.

So I smile and nod. "Yeah, I'll be there."

And then I walk out of the living room and towards the door, with Troy following behind.

He gives me a kiss, tells me he'll see me later and then opens the door for me.

And like the secure woman I am, I tell him okay, march out that door and leave him with the girl he used to be in love with.

Ohhhhh boy.


	19. Chapter 19

"Troy told me you were going to a concert," Becca passes me the salt at breakfast.

I look over at Troy and nod, I know he's pretty jealous about it, "yeah, in Orange County. Fleetwood Mac."

Becca looks over at Troy, "oh my gosh, Troy. You must be so jealous. This guy loves Fleetwood Mac. It would play nonstop on the ride to and from school every single day sophomore or junior year. I can't really remember. Did you get the tickets or are you going with a friend who got them?

She's asking me in a way that's kind of weird. Like, if I got them, why wouldn't I bring Troy? But I guess she's just being a good best friend? I don't know.

"Yeah, I know, he told me." I'm not sure if it sounded rude or not, but whatever. I don't think I really cared if it did? "My best friend got them."

"You're going to have the best time," Troy tells me.

I smile at him and kind of just think about how weird this whole thing has been. I get it. I get that she's his best friend and she might be territorial, but the vibe she's putting out there is that she doesn't really care for me. Or that she thinks Troy could do better. Or that we shouldn't be dating. I don't know. One of those things. And I would understand if she really knew me, but she doesn't. She's been here two days and I'm kind of ready for her to leave.

She makes these snide remarks that I don't think Troy has picked up on because I would like to think he would step in and say something if he had. Like she told me she thinks I should get bangs, it'll look better on me or something like that.

It's little things like that and I'm not even sure she knows she's doing it because the next minute she's complimenting something of mine.

Or she's just reallllly fake. And she forgets she has to be nice to me.

"What are you guys going to do today?"

"Yeah," Becca looks at Troy, "what are we doing today?"

Troy shrugs as he chews the food in his mouth. He washes it down with some orange juice and looks up at Becca. "Whatever you want. If you wanna go to Sea World, we can go there, I can get tickets. Or if you just wanna hang out here, go to the beach, that's fine with me, too."

Sea World? Where we went... on our first date? Or hang out? Ugh whyyy.

Now, I know it's not this secret little place that we only knew of, it's SEA WORLD for God's sake, but still. It makes me feel weird that he'd take her there.

And I shouldn't. I shouldn't feel weird about it at all. It's a public place, SO many people go there and it's something to do. So many people go together. Yet here I am, feeling weird about it. And I don't know why. Am I jealous? Maybe. Because Becca is beautiful with blue eyes, dark hair and the body of some supermodel, pretty much. She's SO New York. Super chic. Why wouldn't all these feelings for her come back?

What better place for them to come back than at a place like Sea World? Where you're walking around together, having fun, laughing?

Ugh, maybe I'm over thinking this. Troy and I are in a relationship for a reason. He's been nothing, but good to me. And I have no reason to believe he's into Becca. He's still into me. I know he is. So what am I doing?

I trust him. I really do. I don't think he'll do anything, but these feelings could come back for her, you know? And that terrifies me.

I snap out of it, and for the sake of being nice and a good girlfriend, I suggest they go. "Sea World's really fun."

"I've only been once," Becca says, shrugging, "like, maybe 10 years ago. I don't remember much."

"Well, then let's go," Troy tells her, putting some more food in his mouth. "That's where Gabriella and I went when we first hung out. Not our first hang out. But as more than friends, like our first date, pretty much. It was a great day."

I looked over at him and smiled, thinking about that day. And suddenly, my mind is at ease. He's into me. I'm into him. Everything's fine. It really is.

Becca's voice broke our graze not a moment later. "Well, isn't that cute. Let's go then."

"Yeah," Troy tells her, sitting up in his chair a bit and taking another drink of his orange juice. "Just gotta call my buddy. We can go around 12."

"So how's this going for you guys?" Becca motions the two of us, "I know it's only been a little while, but how'd it happen? You guys just had class together and then just started hanging out or what? I'm in the dark here. Troy hasn't really told me anything, which is totally not like him."

You see! Something like that. It's not like him? So maybe she's trying to make me think that I'm not important enough to tell a best friend about, you know? That he's told her all about his other girlfriends, but not me. It's so weird.

I was going to say something, but Troy spoke up. "Well, we've both been busy. But yeah, we met in class."

"We have a mutual friend," I tell her, "my best friend is friends with him so you know, we all started hanging out together."

"Oh, well that's cool. Mutual friends make things easier, I suppose. Get to see each other on accident," she says with a smile, "sorry if I'm like being nosy, but it's hard being in New York. I hear you're dating some girl Callie, you go to Europe, I don't talk to you, and then we get busy, and all of a sudden there's no Callie, there's this new girl."

Again. This new girl. Like, she's making it seem Troy's this player type. I know his history. Unless he lied about it. But I don't get that vibe at all.

It's just weird with her. She's nice, but she's not nice. She seems excited for us, but then she doesn't.

"Yeah, well, you know the whole Callie thing wasn't really working out," Troy tells her, "we weren't really anything when we decided not to see each other anymore. But yeah, came back from Europe, met Gabriella, now we're here."

"Well, that's great," Becca smiles, "what were you doing before Troy came along and swept you off of your feet?"

What was I doing? Huh? I don't get it. "What do you mean?"

She chuckles a bit. "I just mean, like, were you ready for a boyfriend? Were you in a relationship with someone else when you met?"

Again. Was I in a relationship? I know she doesn't know me at all so she can't possibly call me a cheater so why would she even throw that out there? It just boggles my mind. Honestly. "No, I wasn't in a relationship. And I wasn't looking. It just sort of happened, I guess."

"Oh, you weren't looking?" she looks a bit intrigued, "how come? Bad break up?"

"Something like that," I look over at Troy and he's just finishing off his juice. Did he tell her what happened? Or was it just a lucky guess?

Troy put his cup down, cleared his throat and tried to stop this conversation. "It's not important, Bec."

Becca waved her arm like she was shushing him or something. "I'm just trying to get to know your girlfriend here. I have limited time with her. And it just took me by surprise that you had one, so let me ask questions."

"I get it, but you don't need to know about her past relationships. That has nothing to do with us and how we are."

"Oh yes it does," she says, "I'm your best friend! As a best friend, I have to protect and care for you. If I don't know what happened in her past relationships, how am I going to be comfortable with her being your girlfriend? I have to know things, Troy. And if you don't, I suggest you do."

She's talking as if I'm not there or something and it's making me really, really hate her.

Which is not good at all.

"Becca," Troy says, looking a bit annoyed and I appreciate it. I really do.

"Look, if she doesn't want to answer the questions, she doesn't have to," she tells Troy, "but I can at least ask if I want to, okay?"

Troy drops it. He looks defeated so he just sits there and pushes his plate off to the side because he's done. And I don't really know what to do, to be girl isn't my friend. I don't really know her. So do I want her knowing personal things about me? Not really.

So Becca turns to me, gives me a smile and apologize. "Sorry, I'm really just trying to get to know you is all. How long did you guys date for?"

"Two years, almost," I tell her, pushing my plate off to the side as well, "broke up before Winter Break."

"Wow, so not that long ago. Have you healed?"

Have I healed? There we go again. I'm so over it. I just want to get up and walk away. Ugh. "Yeah, I've healed. Once I realized things happen for a reason, and Troy came into the picture, I let go of everything. I'm completely over it."

Becca nodded, "That's great. And why didn't it work out? Do you two still talk or not really?"

"We didn't work out because he's an asshole," I tell her, "and no, we don't talk. I wish him well, but he's out of my life."

And before she could say anything else, my phone rang.

It was Summer. We were supposed to be leaving to Orange Country soon so I think she's just calling to see if I'm ready or what time exactly we're leaving. But I took this opportunity to get out of this horrible breakfast with some girl I think I can't stand. I don't think I like her and that really bums me out because she's Troy's best friend. And if she doesn't like me, maybe he values her opinion and she may be the reason for our demise. Ugh.

But whatever. I couldn't think about that right now. My phone was ringing.

I answered, pretended like Summer was telling me I have to get over to her place right now and then hung up.

"Sorry, guys, Summer wants to leave now," I scoot my chair back, put my napkin on the table and take out my wallet, "I'm not sure how much my food was but I'll just leave this here for when you guys pay..."

"No, don't worry about it," Troy pushed the twenty back into my wallet, "I got it. You have to go?"

"Yeah, Summer needs to stop by somewhere before we go, so..." Lie. Summer was so confused on the phone. But I'll explain later obviously. "Thank you for breakfast. I hope you guys have a good day. And I'll see you tomorrow before you go back to New York."

Becca smiled at me, grabbed her orange juice and took a sip, not saying anything.

So I got up and so did Troy. He told Becca he was going to walk me out and that he'd be right back. Which was sweet. Him walking me to my car.

"She means well," Troy tells me as we reach my car, "I think she's still trying to deal with her whole break up so if she's coming off a certain way, like, maybe implying you're not over your ex... I'm sorry about that. She's just going through a lot. And I know that was a bit uncomfortable."

"It's fine." It's really not. I went through a lot and I was NEVER mean to anyone because of it. "I get it. I've been there."

"Okay," he tells me with a smile as he grabs my hand, "I'll miss you."

I can deal with Becca. I can put up with her if it means Troy's in my life. Because I really, really like him. And I really like what we have going on between us. And this is what really matters. Troy and me. That he likes me. And I like him. And everything else, I can deal with. Which means his annoying best friend.

He gives me a kiss on the lips as I wrap my arms around his waist. "I'll be back tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, but I'll still miss you. I hope you have fun."

"I hope you have fun, too," I tell him. I do mean it. I hope he has fun with his best friend who he hasn't seen in a while. "Thanks for breakfast."

"Of course," he smiles at me. His cute little smile. Ugh. He's so beautiful. "You're my girl."

I'm his girl. I'm his girl. I'm HIS girl. I keep repeating those words over and over in my head. It feels good to hear that. It feels good to feel that. I'm his girl and he's my guy and this is something special. I know it is. And I can't wait to explore it more. To keep hanging out with him.

But for now, I have to get going because Summer is probably really confused. Ha. "Okay, I have to go, but I'll text you when I get there. Have fun today."

"Call me later," he says, giving me one last kiss.

And then we break apart, I get in my car and he walks back to the restaurant.

I look at him walking away and can't help, but smile.

He's _mine._


	20. Chapter 20

Last night was hands down one of the best nights of my life.

Seeing Fleetwood Mac with one of my best friends was SO much fun. I can't even describe how much fun it was.

But being back in San Diego, about to see Troy, I'm happy about that. I didn't really miss him because well, that's silly, I see him almost everyday. But you know, there's always that feeling of wanting to hang out with him. It hasn't gone away. And so, I'm happy I'm about to see him.

Sure, Becca is still here, but she's leaving soon. Within an hour or so.

Troy and I are going to an art museum just for fun because well, we both have become interested in it. So Becca's taking a cab to the airport.

"Hello?" I answer my phone as I park outside Troy's apartment. It's Emily. "Yeah, no, sorry, I didn't have time to stop by. Troy and I are going to this art museum. It was SO much fun. I'll tell you about it later. Do you and Ty wanna grab dinner? I'm kind of craving Italian, but I guess it depends what I have for lunch. Yeah, I'll ask Troy, don't know what he has going on, though. Okay, love you. Bye."

I put my phone in my bag, threw it over my shoulder and opened the door to hop out of my car.

It was a beautiful day. The perfect day to go look at some art. And the perfect day to go to this Italian place that overlooks the ocean.

A few minutes later, I'm standing in front of his apart, knocking on the door. But there's no answer. Which is weird because I know he's home. His car's here. And he told me he would be home. Where could he be?

I knocked once more, but nope. No answer. Then I took my phone out and debated calling him, but I kind of just opened the door instead.

It was unlocked, like always, which I'm not too fond of, but he lives in a good neighborhood so whatever.

But I didn't see anyone right when I walked into the living room. No one was in the kitchen. I put my purse down on the table and decided to go to his bedroom. Maybe he was there. Maybe Becca left already. That would be the best case scenario because I didn't want to see her, to be honest. Maybe he was in the shower or something and that's why he didn't hear me knocking.

That wasn't the reason, though.

The reason he didn't open the door was because he was in the middle of kissing Becca.

"Gabriella," he tells me, pulling away from her, "no..."

"Um," I couldn't even find the words to say. Him and Becca just had their lips on each other. There was no embrace, but they were kissing. And here I was, looking like a DAMN FOOL. My boyfriend was cheating on me with his BEST FRIEND. "Um, I, sorry. I'm... I'm gonna..."

I don't even know what I was saying. I turned around, ran out of there and felt the tears already forming.

Troy came over to me, leaving Becca in the room. "Gabriella. No, seriously, it's not what it looks like AT ALL. Please, don't run. Talk to me..."

"It's not what it looks like?!" I yell, but that's all I really say. I grab my purse, open his front door and run out and down to my car as fast as I possibly can. But of course, he's chasing me. So I have no choice but to just scream at him. "Leave me alone. I'm done. You cheated on me. I don't want to talk to you!"

"I didn't cheat on you," he says, "don't make it sound like that. Please. She kissed me, okay!?"

"It didn't look like you were stopping her," I argue, crossing my arms across my chest, "you probably liked it. It's fucking Becca!"

He shook his head and tried to grab me, but I pulled away. "Nothing happened. She kissed me, you came in, in the middle of me being shocked. I didn't know she was going to do that, okay? So don't say I cheated on you because I didn't."

It doesn't matter. I can't. I can't do this. "Don't give me that bullshit excuse. You probably enjoyed it. And I can't do this. I can't believe I trusted you!"

"You can trust me!" he says, coming closer, "I promise you can."

But I can't. I feel like I can't. Not after what I just saw. He wasn't moving. He didn't move until I cleared my throat. I wish I hadn't. I wish I just stood there and watched what he would have done if he knew they were alone. If he's telling the truth. Ugh. I just wish this wasn't happening to me at all.

Besides, it's BECCA.

"You were in love with her, you probably still are, and I'm not going to sit here and have you pretend like you didn't want it to happen. And that you feel bad. You're just here because you probably feel obligated."

"What are you talking about?" he says, trying to grab my arms again, "I'm here because I want to tell you that nothing happened."

"You were in love with her," I repeat, "spare me, Troy. You guys fucking kissed and that's it. I'm done. Please, please don't call me or try to talk to me."

"Gabriella," he says as I pull away once again, "please, let's just talk about this. Rationally."

Rationally? Yeah, okay! "Is this why you wanted me to let my guard down!? Huh?!"

It looks like those words really hurt him, but I'm trying not to see that because I want to think he's this horrible person so it makes everything a little bit easier. Because I can't with him right now. I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I'm being cheated on... again.

"Don't say that," he tells me, "babe, please..."

No. I can't. I don't want to hear him call me babe. I can't compete with Becca. I don't want to compete with Becca. And I know how it goes. He's going to choose her in the end. He's just here so he doesn't look like an asshole. "I'm done. There's nothing to talk about. Don't call me. I don't want to talk to you."

And with that, I turned around, got in my car and drove off.

Fuck Troy Bolton.

* * *

"Gabriella!" I hear my name being called, but I'm choosing to ignore it.

Instead, I keep on cleaning the shelves in the living room because that's what I do when I'm mad... I clean.

And right now, I'm more than mad. So, so far, I've cleaned my bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen and now I'm onto the living room. I'll probably end up cleaning the backyard, too, in some way. I'm not sure what I could possibly clean back there, but I'll find something.

"Seriously, Gabs, stop!" Emily yanks the duster out of my hand, "you need to calm down."

"I'm fine! I'm just cleaning!"

Emily looks over at Tyler and Brody who are standing in the living room with her and gives them a look like she needs help with me.

So Brody steps in, "come on, let's go out. Let's get your mind off of Tr..."

"Don't fucking say his name!" I tell him, and then turn to Emily, grab the duster out of her hand and go over to the coffee table and start dusting underneath it because it's filthy down there and no one ever thinks to clean it. "Can you guys leave? You're just in my way."

I know I'm being rude to my friends, but I'm just so... hurt. And I'm taking all of my aggression out on them and I don't really care right now.

They don't leave, though.

Brody, Emily, and Tyler just stand there and watch me clean.

And after I'm done cleaning and I'm gonna go over to the couches and flips the cushions, I catch another glimpse of them and they're just watching me. I'm not sure why. But they are. And I really, really just want them to leave and let me do my thing.

Then, out of nowhere, I turn around, and tears start falling from my face. "Why did he cheat on me? I thought we..."

Emily immediately came over and hugged me, "Shhh, it's okay. We're here."

"He... he promised me he..." I couldn't even get what I wanted to say out because these tears were falling. I was full on crying. "I hate him."

"Let it all out," she tells me.

I'm on her shoulder for a minute or so and then I take my head off and wipe my tears. I don't wanna be crying. I don't want to cry over this guy. This guy who promised me he would never intentionally hurt me and that's exactly what he did. And I hate him. I hate him so much right now.

I went and sat on the couch and laid my head on the pillow. "Why do people cheat on me? Am I that horrible?"

"Stop," Emily comes over to me, sits down and caresses my head, "don't say that."

"Gabs, you're great," Brody chimes in, like the best friend he is. "What if he is telling the truth and you walked in the moment she decided to kiss him? You have to at least hear him out. You really like this guy."

Nope. I've been ignoring his calls for the past two days and today in class, I sat as far away as possible and bolted out of that classroom after.

I can't talk to him right now.

"I can't compete with a best friend, someone who he was in love with. I'm not going to go through that whole talk when I know what it's going to be like in the end," I tell them, "he's going to choose her and they're going to live happily ever after. Haven't you seen Something Borrowed?"

"Oh please, that's a movie," I could feel Emily rolling her eyes, "maybe you should hear him out."

I shake my head, "I just told you. She wins. They have so many years on us and I just can't. I don't want to."

Emily is for sure shaking her head right now at the guys and I don't even care. I just want to lay here and forget all about it, graduate and get the hell away from Troy Bolton and everything I thought we had.

I'm SO hurt.

And I'm sad. And mad. And really, really annoyed that I let my guard down.

There's just so many things going on right now and the last thing I want to do is talk to him. I made it clear I don't want to talk to him and we're done and I'm pretty sure I mean it because I don't even want to know what's going to come next. It's not like he's going to cut her out of his life even if he does choose me. She's always going to be there and I don't think I can ever get over it. I don't know. I really don't.

All I know is that right now, I'm actually extremely grateful to have the friends I have and how much they care about me.

"I'm gonna go get us some burgers and milkshakes," Brody tells me.

"Okay," I say, under my breath.

It's not the end of the world. It's really not.

But right now, it feels like it and I can't believe I'm going through this again. Sure, it hasn't been two years of dating and all these promises about our future, but I really, really liked him. No, like. I like him. And it's going to take some time to get over it.

I have to, though. I have to get over him and I have to be fine moving forward.

Because I deserve more. I deserve not to get cheated on.

Ugh.


	21. Chapter 21

"Please, let's just talk."

"No," I tell Troy, walking away, "I'm in a hurry."

"No you're not," he tells me, catching up to me, "please, Gabriella. We haven't talked since you left that day and I have so much I want to say to you. Just hear me out. You can't be the only one that gets a say here. I have shit I wanna say."

I stopped walking, turned around, and let him have it. "I'm the one who got cheated on. Don't tell me you have shit to say! I don't wanna hear it."

Troy sighed, "I didn't kiss Becca. You have to know that."

"But you probably liked it," I argue, turning around to walk away.

"Gabriella," he comes after me again, grabbing me by the arm, "stop. Can we please have a rational talk?"

"No, we can't!" I turn around again, trying my hardest not to have tears in my eyes. "I'm not going to stand here and compete with a girl you've been in love with, okay? She wins. She can have you. You can have her. And you guys can be happy together. Please, just let me go..."

Troy let me go because that's the kind of person he is.

But he didn't stop wanting to talk. There were people passing, though, people in all different directions and people that were starting to stare.

So he begged me once more if we could talk in private, if we could work on this.

"I really can't," I tell him, fighting back the tears, "don't call me."

And with that, I walked away.

As far as I'm concerned, Troy and I are done. I'm not going to go through this again. And this time is so different. I can't compete with Becca and I have no plans to. It's such a different situation than with Chris and I. That girl he was talking to, that girl he hooked up with, they didn't have a history. And Troy and Becca do and that's where she has me beat. She wants him now and I don't know what he's trying to talk to me about, but at the end of the day, he is probably in bed thinking about her and what went on between them and I want no part of it.

I just need to get far away from him as possible.

And every single guy in San Diego because evidently, they all suck.

* * *

It's been two weeks since I've last talked to Troy and although I see him in class, he's actually respected me.

He realized I don't want to talk and he's backed off.

And right now, I'm currently laying in Summer's bed, waiting for her to come back with a bowl of watermelon that we can snack on while watching countless number of Gossip Girl episodes on this fine Saturday night. We have nothing better to do.

"Do you want something to drink?"

"Nah, I have water," I grab mine from her night stand and show Summer.

She comes over to her bed, sets the watermelon down in the middle of us and then grabs her remote and turns on the TV.

But before selecting an episode to watch, she turns to me and it looks like she wants to tell me something, but is hesitant and kind of nervous about it. "Can you not be boy hating Gabriella right now? Because I have some news and I really want to tell you about it."

"What is it?"

"I met someone," she says, "and we've been on four dates."

WAIT WHAT? Summer is... dating someone? And she didn't tell me? What the actual fuck. I immediately turn my body towards her, put on my mad face and yell at her. "Why the fuck did you not tell me?"

She shrugged, "you and Troy... and I just didn't want to be insensitive, but I met him and we've been on four dates and things are... good."

The fact that she didn't want to tell me makes me really sad. I'm usually the first person she tells things, too. Or one of the firsts. And I would have loved to know that she was dating someone. And she couldn't tell me because I was too busy being mad about Troy, talking about ME, and everything I hate about guys. Man, what a shitty friend I am. Or what a great friend she is. It's both.

"Sum, I'm so happy for you," I sincerely tell her, "please, tell me everything. I wanna know everything."

"Okay," she smiles.

I really do want to know everything. I love hearing about my best friends lives and I want to be there and be happy for her.

So she tells me everything. "We met at Alison's, she was having people over so Kate and I went and we were seriously only going to stay for about an hour because we were SO tired, but Alison invited us and we didn't want to be rude. And then he walked in... Aaron. And I couldn't take my eyes off of him. For some reason, he came over and talked to me and we ended up talking for about an hour. He asked for my number, we went out the next day and we just haven't stopped hanging out. Two weeks."

"Do you have a picture?" I immediately ask. I want to see this guy.

"No," she frowns, "but you'll meet him soon. He's just... different. And I know right now that doesn't mean anything to you, but..."

"Oh, God, no," I shake my head, "no, stop, don't sugarcoat anything, don't, I don't know. If you wanna brag about how nice he is and how great, by all means go for it. I'm not going to sit here and think, yeah, right. I know not all guys are the same. I'm just the one that keeps getting stuck with shitty ones."

Summer smiled, "thanks, but you know you don't. Chris was great for a while and Troy, well, he's great, too."

Ugh. I don't wanna talk about it.

I don't wanna talk about myself. I wanna hear about her and her guy. "Tell me more..."

"He's from Anaheim and he's going to graduate school in LA so really, nothing's going to change, we can still keep dating if we want to since I'm moving out there with you," she continues, "so that's cool. It's almost like fate in a way, but I'm not sure I believe in that. But I like him. And we're having fun."

"That's great, Sum, I'm so happy for you." I really, really mean it.

Summer smiles and then talks about me again. "Have you tried talking to Troy? You can deny it all you want, but I know you miss him."

Ugh, of course I miss him. "That doesn't mean I want to get back with him. I can't, Sum. He hurt me. He betrayed me."

"I know," she nods, "but unlike Chris, he was trying to talk to you, he was trying to tell you that Becca was the one who kissed him. If he wanted her, he wouldn't take a minute out of his day to try to talk to you and explain everything. He would just be happy she wanted him and they'd start a relationship and be happy and forget all about you, but he hasn't."

"He's nice," I shrug, "that's one thing I'll say about Troy Bolton. He's nice. And so he probably just didn't want to be a complete asshole and not do anything."

Summer rolled her eyes, "I'm not gonna tell you what to do, I just think maybe clearing the air would be good. Because even though it wasn't two years, there was something there and I know how much you cared about him. How much you liked him. How much you probably still do..."

Maybe. But it's useless and I'm just trying to move on with my life.

It's all I wanna do.

So I just tell her maybe and then grab the remote from her and select a Gossip Girl episode.

I need to stop talking and thinking about Troy Bolton.

But it's so fucking hard to do.


	22. Chapter 22

"You sure you don't wanna go?" Emily asks me as she throws her purse over her shoulder.

I look over to her and Summer and shake my head, "nah, I have a lot of homework, but you guys have fun."

They shrug and walk out the door.

The amount of homework I have is insane. Insane. But I have a few weeks left then I'm done... forever. So I just have to power through. And that means not going shopping with my friends, but I can live with that for a couple more weeks. This homework right now is way more important than that, to be honest.

Even though I could get some new bathing suits and sundresses.

Focus, Gabriella. You'll have plenty of time for that when you're done with school. So I sit here and focus on all my homework. Every single class. And within an hour, I'm halfway done with it which makes me feel good and productive.

But just as I'm about to get started on my schedule for the week, because I love to plan, I hear a knock on my door.

Great. Who could it be?

I get up, slip on my sandals and walk over. I look through the little peephole and I'm completely taken aback and surprised by who's at my front door.

Becca. Troy's best friend. The girl Troy kissed.

Fuck. What do I do? It's been two weeks and to be honest, I haven't thought about her and her whole role in this whole thing. But I don't think I'm very fond of her. And I really, really don't want to talk to her. It's over with. I haven't spoken to Troy. And I have no idea what the hell she's doing here.

I know she heard me walking around, though, so I can't not open the door. So I do. "Hey..."

"Hi," she gave me a small smile, "um, can I... can I come in?"

"Sure," I swung the door wide open and let her walk through. I closed the door behind us and kind of just stood there. "What do you want?"

She chuckled a bit. "Expected that reaction and tone. But honestly, I just want to talk to you... about everything."

Obviously. What else would we talk about? How the weather is? School? No. We only have one thing in common. Troy. And so of course that's what we're going to talk about. "I honestly don't need to hear anything, if you guys are happy together, that's great. I think you're wasting your time coming here."

"What?" she asks, looking confused, "no, we're not together..."

"You're not?"

"Gabriella, I'm SO sorry," she says before we even have a chance to sit down anyway, "I really, really am. I know the way I was acting might not make you believe I'm sorry, but I am. And I so wish I could take it all back. Being rude to you, kissing Troy, causing all of... this. I never meant to do that. I didn't come out here to do that. It just happened. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry you guys aren't together."

She looks sincere, but then again, I don't know Becca well. I don't know if she's a good actress or not, you know? "It doesn't matter."

Becca shook her head. "It should matter. I had no right to kiss him."

"I'm sure he wanted you to," I walk away from her and to the living room where she followed me.

"No," she tells me, taking a seat on the couch, "no. Honestly. It was all me. I... I'm not going to blame me being in a bad place for doing something stupid because it's such a cop out, but I wasn't thinking clearly. Here is my best friend, who has always been there for me and I've always been the number one girl in his life, no matter what. And then you come in and change all of that and it threw me off. And it made me do something I shouldn't have done."

"What are you doing here, Becca?" I ask her, wanting to get to the point. "And how do you even know where I live?"

She sighed. "I have a wedding to go to in Orange County. Made a pit stop. And don't worry about it. But here I am, wanting to make things right and tell you how sorry I am that I kissed your boyfriend."

Ex boyfriend. He's not my boyfriend anymore. "Ex boyfriend."

"Right, ex boyfriend," she corrects herself. "I'm usually not like that. I was so rude to you and it was because I wasn't used to everything. For so long, I was Troy's number one girl. Something was going on with him? He'd call me. He wanted to get some lunch? He'd pick me up. And it wasn't like that anymore. Sure, I was in New York, but it still stayed like that all through college. Every single other girl he's had, I knew if they were in trouble and I was in trouble, he'd pick me ever single time. And then you come into the picture, you're gorgeous and smart and I was jealous. I was jealous Troy liked you so much. The way he looked at you, the way he talked about you when we did talk. Everything. I was no longer the girl he would think about and that made me... sad. Not because I still wanted him to like me in that way, I knew he did and I knew he was over it, but I never really thought he was fully over it. The thought of him liking me in the back of my mind always felt like some security. Like, at least someone out there likes me, you know? It's stupid. It's really so stupid, but I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have kissed him. He didn't kiss me back, I promise you. He froze. You came in, whatever went down with you guys, made him send me off to the airport in such anger. And we really haven't talked since. Once or twice, but he made it clear there's nothing. And the truth is, I don't think I'm into Troy. I really, really don't. It was just this... jealous thing. Like I said, I wasn't the one he thought about anymore. And that got to me."

"I don't really know what to say right now," I tell her, trying to process everything. It's A LOT.

There's some relief knowing he didn't kiss her, he didn't initiate it.

There's some anger there knowing she did this on purpose. And not just anger for me, but anger for Troy.

This girl he was in love with kissed him out of jealously, not because she really wanted to do it. And that's weird to me. It's weird I feel bad for him because of all this, but I guess it wasn't really his fault if she's telling me the truth about everything.

"I know it's a lot to take in," she continues, "after it happened, I went home to New York, I called Troy, there was nothing. At the time, I thought maybe it could happen. Maybe Troy's the one for me. I mean, he did like me after all. But he was ignoring me. Not returning my calls or texts. And then finally, a week and a half later, he calls me and we talk about everything. And I just think you need to talk to him if you still like him. I know it was shitty for me to do what I did, but at the same time, it was closure for me. There's nothing there. He picks you. And after talking, I realized that yeah, I don't think I was into him. It was out of jealously and again, I can't apologize enough for it. It was just really hard making that transition from being his number one girl to... not. Those few days I was here, it was Gabriella this, Gabriella that. And something inside of me just made me so angry. But it wasn't because I have genuine romantic feelings for him. I mean, if you can make him fall that hard, that fast... there's something special there. So I just wanted to tell you that."

"I um, well," I couldn't exactly find the words to say. "Um, thank you for telling me all of this. I appreciate it. And I'm sorry I made you feel like I was somehow taking your spot in Troy's life, I promise you, I wasn't trying..."

"Oh no," she shakes her head, "I know. He's the one that wants you to be there and I'm more than okay with that. I totally get it. He's been in my place when I started dating my ex. It happens. But again, I'm really sorry. That is not me and I hope we can start over sometime."

I accept her apology, completely.

I feel like she's being sincere. And in all the things Troy has ever told me about her, I could sense she was a good person with a kind heart.

And so yes, we can move forward. And we can start over. "Thank you for telling me all of this."

"Of course," she nods, "I had to. Troy might have mentioned not to get involved when I told him I wanted your number to call you so don't tell him I'm here or that I came here, but I couldn't help it. He's sad about the whole thing, I know he is, so I think you guys should talk. Smooth things out. I'm sure you still like him a hell of a lot. He's a really great guy."

"Thank you," I smile at her, appreciative. "I won't tell him."

And then with that, she gets up, and tells me she has to get going because her friend is waiting for her outside.

Now I'm stuck here, debating what in the world to do with this information.

I have to talk to him. I want to talk to him.

Because I miss him so much.


	23. Chapter 23

I put my homework off for later, because I couldn't sit on this.

So I changed out of my lounging around clothes, put on some jeans, a t shirt and some flats and headed over to Troy's place.

And you could tell he was surprised to see me when he opened the door. "Gabriella..."

"Hi," I give him a small smile, "you busy?"

"No," he shakes his head, looks over his shoulder and then back at me. He opens the door wider and steps to the side, allowing me to come in. "Um, no, I'm not busy. I was just doing some homework, but um... do you wanna come in?"

I nod like an idiot and step in and when he closes the door behind us, it feels a bit awkward. Obviously, I've seen him in class and I've seen him out once but I'm in his home. In his apartment. The place we spent countless night making out, laughing until our stomachs hurt, talking about everything and anything. So it feels weird. And it feels a little awkward. To be back here. Even though it's only been two weeks apart...

"I'm sorry I'm just dropping by like this," I tell him as we move towards the living room, "I just... I wanted to talk to you about some things."

"Is this about the Art History paper we said we'd do together? Because I understand if you..."

"No," I cut him off with a small laugh. How cute was he? He's so... not pushy. Yes, he still tried talking to me after I told him not to, but just once. Then he left me alone, at my request. And that says a lot. Even though people say that if someone loves you, or likes you or whatever, they'll fight for you. But you know what, I don't abide by that rule. I don't think that's necessarily true. And so I appreciate him getting my message loud and clear and not thinking like he can just keep trying to talk to me if he wanted to. "It's not about the paper. Um, I was just... I was wondering how you were?"

He furrowed his eyebrows together and I think he thinks I'm kidding, but I couldn't think of anything else to start this off with. "I'm okay. How are you?"

I should just get right to it. I really need to. "We should talk."

"About what?" he asks.

"Maybe about everything." I shrug.

"You want to talk about everything?" He asks me, looking surprised, "really?"

I nod. And give him a small, weak smile. I'm not sure what I expected. For him to just kiss me the minute he saw me? For him to just get the hint that I miss him and I want to work things out? I mean, I get it. I shut him out. I completely shut him out. He's probably hurt about that.

So I just woman up and spill what I'm feeling. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for just shutting you out. It just... it hurt. Seeing that. Becca was someone you were in love with and it felt like I couldn't catch a break. And it was just a little too much for me."

"I know it looked bad, with you knowing everything," he says, "but I promise you, I had no idea that was going to happen. I didn't kiss back."

"Yeah, I know," I tell him with a smile, "I believe you."

Troy gave me a small smile as well and shook his head, like he couldn't believe what was happening right now.

And then he took a deep breath and let it out before saying anything else. "There's nothing there with Becca. And to be honest, I don't think there ever really was. I think I liked the idea of her. The fact that she just knew all these things about me. And I think I thought it was love, but it couldn't be. It wasn't. Because what I felt when I was around her then, what I thought was love, is not even close to what I feel when I'm around you and so really, I don't think it was actually love. And when she kissed me, the first thing I thought about was you. And just taking that time to figure it out, there's nothing there and it just made me realize even more than I already had that I'm crazy about you and I only want you."

"I'm crazy about you, too," I tell him, taking a step towards him, "I'm sorry I was so insecure and didn't trust what you said. I should have."

"I get it. You've been burned before, you thought you could get burned again. And it didn't help it was with Becca, someone you knew I used to have feelings for, but I promise you, they're not there. I don't... we had a long talk and I don't even think she feels anything, either. She was just jealous or something like that. Feeling down or whatever. But I want you and only you."

Ugh, Troy's great. He's the absolute best and always knows exactly what to say.

I feel like we're in a movie or something and we have scripts. This is so movie like. And it's so crazy.

But this is real life. It's my life. And I wouldn't change a damn thing, to be honest. It shows me just how strong our connection is and that really, not all guys are going to screw you over. There are some great ones out there and I'm pretty sure I have the best one standing in front of me.

"I'm sorry," I say once again, feeling like it's the only thing there is to say to him. I accused him of cheating when he didn't and I feel awful about it.

"It's behind us now," he comes closer and wraps his arms around me.

It definitely is behind us. And I can't wait to see where this goes. I like him SO much.

Troy pulls me in, I wrap my arms around his neck and then in one swift movement, he leans down and kisses me.

He kisses me like he's never kissed me before. And it is hands down one of the best kisses I've ever had in my life. Because it signifies so much. Forgiveness, trust, this connection between us and just so much more. We're really doing this... this relationship. We're all in and I couldn't be more excited about it.

"We're going to that art museum," he tells me as he pulls away.

"What?" I'm confused for a second, but then I remember it was our plan for that day. "Oh, yes."

"Okay, cool."

And then he shuts up and kisses me some more.

I couldn't be happier in this moment.


	24. Chapter 24

I cannot believe I'm graduating tomorrow.

These four years have flown by so fast and although I'm excited, I'm going to miss it.

"What time is your family coming?" Emily asks as she grabs her keys from the tray, "I'm gonna go have lunch with Kate."

"Any minute now."

"Alright, well, we'll all grab dinner together?" she asks, grabbing her purse as well, "I miss them."

I tell her of course and then she's out the door going to lunch. I'm in the living room waiting for Troy to come over and for them to arrive so we can all go out to lunch together. Their first time meeting. And I'm not nervous because I think they'll like it, but you know, what if they don't have anything to talk about? What if lunch is super awkward? I doubt it. Troy can talk. My mom can talk. It's going to be fine and I'm just thinking about worst case scenarios.

Five minutes later, Troy enters my house, looking as hot as ever.

"Your family isn't here yet?"

"Nah," I shake my head, "but they should be here soon. What are you in the mood for?"

He gives me a kiss and then sits down on the couch next to me, "oh, I don't care. They can pick. I'm down for whatever."

Troy is meeting my whole family. Mom, dad, sister, brother, grandparents... on both sides. They're all coming down for my graduation, of course, so he's meeting them all and I'm excited they can finally put a face to the name they've been hearing about.

"When is your family coming?" I ask him.

"Tomorrow morning," he says, "I'm still not packed so they're gonna help me do that. They're staying until the weekend, probably."

I've met his parents and his sister. not his brother, though. His parents came down one weekend because they were attending a wedding in Orange County so they decided to just drive a little bit longer the day before and hang out with Troy. So, I met them. And they're lovely. His mom is SO nice. So welcoming. And his dad reminds me so much of him. Of course Riley is cool. But I haven't met his brother Cory. That'll happen tomorrow, though, I'm sure.

I'm excited. I'm excited about our future and about graduating.

"So you're driving up this weekend?"

"Yeah, I gotta be out of there by Monday," Troy takes his phone out of his pocket and checks it, "sorry, my mom's texting me."

"I can't wait to take you to Casa Vega," I tell him, "I cannot believe you've never been there."

He laughs, typing away on his phone, but still hearing every word I'm saying. And then he puts his phone down and turns to me, giving me a smile, "yeah, and I can't believe you've never been to Malibu Farm. But yes, take my there, you know I love Mexican food."

I laugh, grabbing the control, about to turn the TV on, but then the doorbell rang.

Troy got up, but I told him to just stay there because we don't wanna make it seem like we're trying too hard for him to be polite. HA.

So I just went over to the door and opened it. And immediately, my mom came in for a hug. Followed by my sister and brother. And then my dad and grandparents. Ahhh I'm SO happy they're here! They're the most important people in my life and I can't wait to hang out with them and for them to get to know my boyfriend and to eat the best Japanese food they've ever had.

Yes, I decided to take them to the sushi place Troy took me and I couldn't wait for them to try it.

"Thank you for coming," I tell my grandparents.

"We wouldn't miss it for the world," my grandma on my mom's side tells me.

"Of course," my dad's mom hugs me once again, "you're graduating! That is so exciting!"

Two of my aunts and three of my cousins are coming down tomorrow and they're going to make a little trip out of it so I'm excited for that. I know my whole family can't come because it's the middle of the week and it's two hours away, three with traffic, so the family I do have here- it means the world.

Once we're all done saying hi, I lead them over to the living room where Troy is sitting on the couch. But the moment we all walk in, he gets himself up.

"Mom, dad, this is Troy," I tell them, "and Troy, these are my parents, Theresa and David."

"Nice to meet you guys..."

My mom immediately gives him a hug, "oh, it's so nice to meet you. We've heard such great things about you."

I'm not knows how much I like him so of course I'm going to talk about him to my mom. My dad, on the other hand, just gave him a friendly smile and a handshake and they were good to go.

And then my grandparents came and my grandmas both hugged him because that's what we do in this family. But my grandpa's, like my dad, just gave him a nice handshake and told him it was nice to meet him. My brother, too. And my sister, who he's met already, gave him a hug.

Before I knew it, my mom and grandmas were in a full on conversation with him.

"Can we go? I'm starving," Arianna complained.

"Okay, fine," I didn't want to ruin the great conversation going on, but I was hungry too, and I'm sure they can continue it at the restaurant, "let's go."

So, off we went... all 10 of us.

* * *

"You grew up in Malibu?" my mom asks Troy as she's grabbing some edamame, "how'd you like it?"

"Oh, loved it," Troy smiled at her, "yeah, growing up right by the beach. It was great. It wasn't too city, but you know, it's around the corner, so..."

My mom nodded, "yeah, yeah, we almost settled in Malibu when we were first married, but we fell in love with a house in the city."

Conversation is flowing nicely and it's not like I didn't expect it to, but I'm loving it. I feel so relaxed. Troy doesn't even need me here. He could carry on conversations with everyone. That's just the kind of person he is.

"Do you have a plan after graduating or are you looking to just relax a little bit, travel, sleep all summer since you probably didn't the last four years?"

Troy laughed at my dad's question, "I'll be doing a bit of traveling, but come September, I have a job lined up, working my way up to be a marketing manager, which is what I went to school for. So we'll see. I kinda just wanna get everything started. I'll travel later on."

My dad looked impressed.

Maybe because straight out of college, he went to business school and got his life together.

"Did you like living down here?" is his next question, "what were your other options? Or did you only apply here?"

"No, I applied other places," Troy told him, "I applied to Santa Barbara, UCLA, even a couple east coast schools, but I don't know, San Diego isn't too far away but I know I wanted to get away, be independent and be on my own for a bit, so yeah, San Diego was the most logical answer."

Again, he looked impressed. Or content with that answer.

Troy Bolton is doing just fine. My parents are going to love him. My grandparents are going to love him. Everyone is.

"So, how'd you guys meet?"

My mom and dad looked at each other and then over at me. They were taken aback by his question for sure. And not in a bad way. It's just... every guy I've brought him, every girl my brother has, or boyfriend my sister has had, they've never asked them questions the first time they met. Ever. Nope. I mean, even Chris. He just sat there, answered all of their questions and that was pretty much it.

But Troy... he's flipping it on 's trying to get to know them as well and is interested in their lives.

As soon as my mom realized she didn't hear incorrectly, a huge smile appeared on her face. "We met during college in a coffee shop."

"I'm pretty sure she saw me walk in there so she did as well," my dad said.

"No," my mom laughs, hitting him slightly on the arm, "no. I walked in and immediately, I saw him. Tall, dark and handsome. Thank God he was by himself because that's the only reason I went up to him. Well, I had an excuse to, he coincidentally dropped his ID on the ground when he took out some cash from his pocket, so I grabbed it and handed it to him. And I don't know... we sat and talked for about an hour after we realized we both were going to UCLA."

My mom then looked over at my dad and smiled at him and he grabbed her hand, and ugh, they're still so cute together.

They've been together for 27 years. 27! Holy cow.

"Wow, so just at the right place at the right time, huh?" Troy chuckles, "well, that's great..."

"Yeah, I would have noticed her, for sure, but I've never been that guy to approach a girl first. Maybe at a party or something, but at a coffee shop, not a chance, so I'm glad she did," my dad laughed, "or who knows where we'll be. I can't even imagine it, really."

My mom and dad have the kind of love that I so desperately want.

They share everything. They know everything. And they want everything together.

They want to tell everything to one another. They want to be involved in whatever's going on. They want success for one another, whether it's more than them. They just want each other to be happy and healthy. They're so open with each other and always talked things through, are always so honest with each other and that's what has made them last all these years. If they were ever unhappy with the way things were going, they'd talk about and try to fix it. And growing up, I saw that. I saw that they never once gave up on each other even though it's easy to. Marriage is hard. Having a family is hard.

But they make it look so easy.

I admire them so much and I want the love they have for each other... which is a forever kind of love.

And as I see Troy talking to my parents, I can't help but have thoughts of maybe having this kind of love with him. Obviously, it's still early, but when you're dating someone, you don't want to see an end to it. And who knows, really, but I can kind of see it happening with him.

Because Troy Bolton is everything I've been looking for in a guy.

Everything and more.

And I'm so happy he's here with me right now, with my family, at that stage in my life.

I couldn't be happier if I tried... honestly.


	25. Chapter 25

"Baby!"

Troy laughed, wrapping his arms around me as I jumped onto him. "Hey!"

I hugged him as tight as I possibly could. It was my first time seeing him in two weeks, the longest I've gone without seeing him since I've known him. Yes, even when we took that little break, I still saw him in class. But whatever. That's besides the point right now.

Right now, my boyfriend just got home from a family trip to Portland, Seattle and Vancouver and I'm so, so, SO excited he's home.

"I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you, too," he puts me down and then kisses me, "wish you could have came with."

"Next time," I tell him, feeling comfortable enough to say that. I feel like I could go on family trips with them, even though I haven't gotten to know his family THAT well yet. I feel like I'd be more than welcomed to come. And that it won't be weird since we're both adults. "But how was it? You had fun?"

He nodded, closing the door behind him, "yeah, it was a lot of fun. Much needed family time. We haven't all been together in a while so it was really nice."

I bet it was.

After graduation, he settled into his apartment here for a bit with his friend and then embarked on a two week trip.

And I really missed him. More than I thought I would.

But I hung out with my family a lot, Summer and I headed to Santa Barbara one weekend and made a girls day out of it. I was fine. I didn't need him around, I just wanted him to be. Because I love being with him and every day, we're just getting stronger and stronger. Everything's just so great.

"How have you not asked me what's in the bag yet?" Troy laughed as we walked to the living room.

"That was my next question."

He smiled at me as we took a seat on the couch. He was carrying a bag, and it looked to be filled to the top. I have no idea what it was. I mean, it's not my birthday or anything. It's not any type of anniversary. So, really, I have no idea.

But then he handed it to me. "Got you a few things on my trip. You know, just to let you know I was thinking about you."

"You didn't have to do that," I tell him, but grab the bag again.

"I wanted to," he says, "so cliche..."

I laugh and immediately open the bag. I really wanted to know what was inside.

And I wasn't disappointed one bit because there were three sweatshirts in here. I mean, anyone who knows me knows I LOVE sweatshirts and I basically collect them so this is the best gift imaginable. It really, really is. And he got me THREE!? Ahhhh.

They were from each place he went to. So Portland, Seattle and Vancouver and they were the cutest, ever!

It didn't just say the city name on it, nah, they were college sweatshirts and even though I didn't go to those colleges and my heart belongs to UCSD always, I'm in love with college sweatshirts and call wear them all day, everyday. So I collect them. I ask my friends for sweaters from their colleges. It's just something I do so this is great. I love it. I love it so much.

"You know me so well," I tell him as I'm leaning over to give him a kiss, 'but you didn't have to get me all three, babe."

"Who do you know that lives in Vancouver or goes to school in Seattle and Portland?"

True. "You're right. I'll just say thanks."

Troy laughs and leans back on the couch, "you're welcome."

I sat back with him and wrapped my arm around him and we just laid there together. I missed him. I'm falling more and more for him and I know I'm in love with him. I know I'm there. I just haven't had the guts to say it to him. And I'm not scared he's not there yet, I'm just a little scared it'll change everything because I don't want anything to change. We're good. We're so good. And it really hasn't been that long, but I know I love him.

And I know I don't see an end to this anytime soon. That's how you know you love someone, right?

"So, you know we leave to Nashville in two weeks," he brings it up, "you ready?"

"I'm SO excited!"

"I'm excited, too. You've heard all about Charlie and you'll finally get to meet him, he'll finally get to meet you. It'll be fun."

It will be fun. I'm excited to get away. Cooper and Julia are coming, too, so it's like a little couple getaway and I'm so excited. I love hanging with them and with Troy. And I've been dying to visit Nashville. It couldn't come fast enough, to be honest, but it's going to be here before I know it.

And before we go, I kind of want to tell him how I feel.

About a month ago, I was over at his place, his roommate was gone for the weekend and it just happened.

We had sex.

And we've been having sex sporadically ever since then. It feels so right.

But I wanna be doing it the right way. I wanna be doing it the way it's supposed to be done... when you're in love with , when you're married, but that ship has sailed. Honestly, I probably was in love with him when we first did it, but now I know for sure and I want him to know and I want our relationship to be honest. I want to be in a place where everything just lines up. The love, the sex, the respect. All of it.

So here goes nothing...

"Hey," I look up at him, his arm over me now and my head on his chest, "I think I really love you."

Troy's eyes immediately locked with me and a small smile appeared on his face. "Well, that's good, because I think I really love you."

When I knew I was falling for him, the last thing I ever wanted to do was just blurt that out or tell him I love him in a weird place or something. I wanted everything to be perfect. Maybe before we were about to have sex, and there were candles burning and music playing and everything like that.

But the simplicity of it... the fact that I just said it so simply, that right there was the best way it could have gone.

I'm in my apartment, I'm sitting on the couch with my boyfriend and I just told him I loved him for the first time and he told me as well.

And I don't think I would have wanted it to be anywhere else, but here.

Here is perfect.

"I love you," I tell him again, "I really do."

He sits up a little, which causes me to move my head from his chest and unwrap my arms and sit up as well. "I do, too. I think I've loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you, as cheesy as that is, but I do. And I can't see an end to this and I wanna keep sharing my life with you."

God, he's perfect. And he's all mine. And I really do love him. And everything we are together.

"Me too," I whisper before I lean forward and kiss him.

He kisses back, the most passionate kiss we've had so far and then gives me a kiss on the forehead, "I love you."

Man oh man. I'm back in it. I'm back in a relationship where I'm in love.

But this time, it's different. I know it is.

It's better.


End file.
